Iran on Tuesday urged the Iraqi government to ensure Saddam Hussein is hanged and not to cave into any pressure to spare Tehran's former enemy from the death penalty.
"We hope that they will not be pressured by those who have launched psychological warfare into not carrying out the verdict," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.
"The court verdict has been reached at the end of a long and open trial. We hope that the verdict is carried out for the Iraqi criminal in a way that prevents the crimes of dictators."
Leaders from countries in the European Union -- which is on principle opposed to the death penalty -- have expressed varying degrees of concern about the verdict.
Prime Minister Tony Blair declared his opposition to the death penalty for "Saddam or anybody else", while the Finnish presidency of the EU argued explicitly that Saddam should not be executed.
The former Iraqi president is one of the most universally reviled men in Iran for leading Iraq in the 1980-1988 war with the Islamic Republic that cost a total of around one million lives on both sides.
Saddam was sentenced on Sunday to hang for the deaths of 148 Shias in an Iraqi village after an attempt in 1982 to assassinate him. Iran has urged Iraq still to investigate his "crimes" in the eight year war.
Saddam's appeals procedure against his death penalty started on Monday.
Meanwhile Elham scoffed at suggestions that executing Saddam, a Sunni, would increase the violence between Iraq's majority Shia and minority Sunni communities.
"This is mischief-making. Saddam has both Shia and Sunni blood on his hands. His whole existence is anti-human."
Ties have warmed considerably between Iran and Iraq since the fall of Saddam, with Tehran becoming one of the closest allies of the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad.