US President George W. Bush welcomed the deaths of Saddam Hussein's two sons Oday and Qusai on Tuesday, saying it was "positive news," according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Bush described their demise as "further assurance to the Iraqi people that the regime is gone and won't be back," said McClellan, who called the brothers "leaders of a brutal regime."

The US military confirmed Tuesday that the two sons of Iraq's former president Saddam Hussein had been killed earlier in the dayby the US troops in northern Iraq.

Commander of US ground forces in Iraq, Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, told a televised news conference that Odai and Qusai were among the four persons killed in a US military raid on a building in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

"Four persons were killed during that operation and were removed from the building and we have since confirmed that Odai and Qusai Hussein are among the dead," said Sanchez.

The United States has put both Odai and Qusai among the most wanted Iraqis' list and has offered a US$25 million reward for information leading to Saddam's capture and a US$15 million bounty for each of Saddam's two sons.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2003)