Saddam Hussein's vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan has been captured in Mosul, the Iraqi city where the fugitive dictator's sons were cornered and killed last month, U.S. and Kurdish officials said on Tuesday.

Taha Yassin Ramadan(L), Saddam Hussein's former vice president, has been captured by U.S. Kurdish allies in northern Iraq, U.S. and Kurdish officials said on August 19, 2003. Ramadan was No. 20 and the 10 of diamonds in a deck of cards issued to U.S. troops hunting the 55 most wanted members of Saddam's administration. Ramadan is seen with former President Saddam Hussein(R) in Baghdad in this 1996 file photo.   [Reuters]

The seizure by Kurdish forces of such a high-profile member of Saddam's inner circle will fuel U.S. hopes that American troops are closing in on the ousted Iraqi leader himself.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two Kurdish groups that fought alongside U.S. troops in the war that toppled Saddam, said it seized Ramadan on Monday night after tracking him to a house where he was staying with relatives.

Ramadan, a ruthless and long-serving lieutenant who once suggested President Bush fight a duel with Saddam, was handed over to the U.S. 101st Airborne Division a few hours later after a brief interrogation by the PUK.

"There were some questions directed to him, but he had broken down and become disoriented and he was unable to answer," said Sadi Ahmed Pire, the top PUK official in Mosul.

"But since he was one of the elements closest to the president of the dead regime, and one who had a role in overseeing the acts of sabotage and crime after the regime fell, he must be aware of where figures of the regime are."

Ramadan was number 20 on the U.S. list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis, and the 10 of Diamonds in a deck of cards depicting Iraqi fugitives that was issued to U.S. troops.

Mosul lies 170 km (110 miles) north of Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, where U.S. troops have been hunting intensively for the former Iraqi leader, the Ace of Spades in the deck.

Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay were killed in a U.S. raid on a villa in Mosul last month after a tip-off from an Iraqi who was given a $30-million reward by the United States.

BUSH HAILS CAPTURE

"I'm really pleased that we've captured the vice president. Slowly but surely we'll find who we need to find," President Bush told reporters in Texas.

U.S. officials have said they might be interested in questioning Ramadan about allegations that Saddam had contacts with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Pire said the PUK had been tracking Ramadan -- who came from the Mosul region -- for more than two weeks as he moved between several houses and farms in and around the city. He was captured in a two-story house in the city.

"Two cars came about midnight, full of Kurds, and they leapt out and ran inside," a neighbor who gave his name as Abu Abed said. "A little while later they came out carrying people, and lots of bags and luggage."

In his 60s, Ramadan was one of the most hawkish members of Saddam's inner circle and one of the only surviving plotters of the 1968 coup that brought the Baath Party to power.

He is widely accused of crimes against humanity for his role in suppressing a Kurdish rebellion in northern Iraq in the 1980s and a Shi'ite revolt in southern Iraq in 1991.

A man of blunt words, he told Saudi Arabia's foreign minister to "go to hell" during the invasion when the minister repeated a U.S. suggestion that Saddam should step down.

"You loser," he said of Prince Saud al-Faisal at a Baghdad news conference. "You are a minion and a lackey."

Born into a peasant family, he was a bank clerk before joining the military. His career took off in 1956 when he joined the Baath party, then banned by the British-backed monarchy. He met Saddam and they remained close.

He was made vice president in the aftermath of the Gulf War defeat in March 1991.

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