US President George W Bush could order his Iraqi counterpart Saddam Hussein's assassination, according to a media report.

Asked how the US could remove Saddam from power without killing Iraqi citizens in the process, Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald told Chicago's Daily Herald: "I have personally talked to the president about this and if we had intelligence on where he was now, and we had a clear shot to assassinate him, we would probably do that.

"President Bush would probably sign an executive order repealing the executive order put in place by president [Gerald] Ford..." he said.

In 1976 Ford had issued an executive order forbidding US personnel from assassinating foreign leaders. President Ronald Reagan extended that executive order in 1981 to include hired assassins.

Asked whether Bush had told him he would authorise changing US policy to kill Saddam, Fitzgerald said: "Yes, yes. He told me that aboard Air Force One."

White House was sceptical of the report, but said Saddam and his generals would be targets in the event of a war.

"I don't think it would surprise anybody to think that, if we go to war in Iraq and hostilities result, command and control and top generals, people who are in charge of fighting the war to kill US troops cannot assume that they will be safe," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. "Including Saddam Hussein, of course."

But doubting the accuracy of the report, Fleischer said, "The president doesn't recall if he said it or didn't say it. The staff doesn't recall the president saying it.

"Senator Fitzgerald is not quite certain of the date it took place or where it took place... What is not uncertain is that the executive order is in place. And what's not uncertain is that the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein," Fleischer said.