Ousted Iraq president Saddam Hussein's pistol has made its way to the White House with United States President George W Bush proudly showing it to select visitors, Time magazine said in a report.

The pistol was seized from Hussein when he was captured near Tikrit last December. Some troops who caught the deposed president gifted it to Bush, the report said.

The pistol adorns a proud place in a small study adjacent to the Oval Office, where Bush takes select visitors after pointing out better-known White House pieces like the busts of Winston Churchill and Dwight D Eisenhower, the magazine reported.

"He really liked showing it off," the report quoted an unnamed visitor to the White House as saying. "He was really proud of it."