Saddam's closest aide captured

Mahmud al-Tikriti is the most senior official to be captured

Saddam Hussein's presidential secretary - number four on the US most wanted list of Iraqi leaders - has been captured in Iraq, US officials say.

Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, one of the former Iraqi president's closest aides, controlled access to Saddam Hussein and was frequently at his side.

He is considered to have been third in power only to the president and his younger son, Qusay and is the 32nd person on the list known to have surrendered or been captured.

The detention is reported to have coincided with a series of raids around Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town north of Baghdad.

US troops found $8.5m in cash, up to 400 million Iraqi dinars and an undetermined amount of British pounds and euros in swoops on two farmhouses, Major General Ray Odierno of the 4th Infantry Division told reporters.

He said he did not know if the money was used as bounty for attacks on US troops by Saddam Hussein loyalists or to support Iraqi fugitives.

Up to 50 people believed to be tied to the former president's security, intelligence forces or paramilitary groups were also captured in the raids, he said.

Ace arrest

The BBC Washington correspondent Justin Webb says there will be delight in the White House that Mahmud al-Tikriti - the "ace of diamonds" in the US defence department pack of cards of wanted Iraqis - is in custody.

MAHMUD AL-TIKRITI

Former presidential secretary

Fourth on most wanted list

Believed to have knowledge of suspected weapons sites

Saddam's right-hand man

Mahmud al-Tikriti is said to have directed matters of state and handed down many of the regime's repressive orders.

The US says he was also authorised to deploy weapons of mass destruction.

They believe he might be able to cast some light on the fate of Saddam Hussein, and possibly on the search for banned weapons.

US officials have said they would like to put Mahmud al-Tikriti on trial for alleged complicity in crimes against humanity.

But it is possible that he and other senior Iraqis might be given the opportunity to make plea bargain deals with their captors.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that America was willing to consider such deals.

Attacks 'insignificant'

Mahmud al-Tikriti's capture came after a day of violence in Baghdad which left two protesters and one US soldier dead.

In one incident US troops opened fire on a crowd of former Iraqi soldiers protesting against the non-payment of salaries, killing two people.

The US military said its forces fired in self defence after people in the crowd started throwing rocks.

The BBC's Pentagon correspondent Nick Childs says American military commanders are trying to play down the impact of the opposition they are facing.

General Odierno said the attacks on US forces have been uncoordinated, ineffective and militarily insignificant.

In a separate incident, also in Baghdad, a US soldier was killed as he guarded a petrol station.