The trial of toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein will not stem violence in Iraq as the al Qaeda terrorists have been operating in the country, Paul Bremer, the former top US civil administrator in Iraq, said Sunday in an interview with the Fox News program.

"The terrorists, the Zarqawi, al-Qaeda terrorists, do not need any spurring on. They see correctly that as we go forward towards representative government in Iraq, it takes the entire base of their operations out from under them," Bremer said.

The United States has largely blamed the violence in Iraq to Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, one of the al Qaeda's top leaders.

"Why should they be attacking a sovereign Iraqi government? Why should they be attacking a representative Iraqi government? So I think it affects it even at the margins. I mean they are at war," Bremer said.

To Saddam's loyalists, the trial "could have a mixed impact," Bremer said.

"It could have two effects. Some of them may finally realize that it is really over, that Saddam's days are really over and he is now going to stand trial. Others may be angry about it and may try to increase their attacks," Bremer said.

After running Iraq for 13 months, Bremer stepped down as the top US civil administrator in Iraq and returned to the United States on June 28 when an interim Iraqi government took office.

(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2004)