This photo of a dishevelled Saddam Hussein was released by the US Army

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The ousted President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, is under arrest after he was captured by US soldiers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," US administrator Paul Bremer told journalists in Baghdad.

Saddam Hussein was found hidden in a tiny bunker at a farmhouse about 10 miles (15 km) south of his home town, Tikrit.

A US military spokesman, Major-General Raymond Odierno, said the operation was launched soon after a tip-off from a member of Saddam Hussein's own extended family.

"Over the last 10 days we brought in about five to 10 members of these families, and finally got the ultimate information from one of these individuals," he said.

There was a $25m reward offered by the US authorities for information leading to his capture.

A similar reward was claimed for revealing the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, who were killed in a raid by US forces in the northern city of Mosul in July.

Saddam Hussein was found in a "spider hole" or cellar just big enough for a person to lie down in, and six to eight feet (1.8m to 2.5m) deep.

The entrance was topped with a polystyrene lid and covered with a rug, bricks and dirt. Saddam had been breathing through an air vent and extractor fan.

The former Iraqi dictator was armed with a pistol, but Major-General Odierno said he gave himself up without resistance.

He seemed "disoriented" and "bewildered", the Major-General said, and was arrested at 2030 local time (1730 GMT).

Two unidentified people said to be "close allies" of Saddam Hussein were also arrested. Weapons and more than $750,000 in cash was confiscated.

Video footage was released by the US military showing a dishevelled Saddam with a long black and grey beard undergoing a medical examination.

The former president had not been seen since US forces entered Baghdad in April.

Despite one of the most intensive manhunts in history, he has evaded capture for eight months.

As the news spread throughout Iraq, people began celebrating in the streets of Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk by sounding their horns and firing into the air.

Saddam's stronghold towns of Tikrit and Fallujah, however, were sombre and quiet. 

More than 200,000 died before the peace deal was reached

Under the deal Bosnia is preserved as a single state but it is divided into two parts.

It will be made up of a Muslim-Croat federation representing 51% of the country's territory and a Serb republic holding the remaining 49%.

Sarajevo will become a unified city with Serbs giving up some suburbs which they currently control.

The so-called "safe-enclave" of Gorazde will remain under Muslim control but it will be linked by a land corridor to Sarajevo.

The three leaders signed the deal surrounded by European heads of state in a Parisian palace before 50 world leaders and international organisation chiefs.

Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic said the country had been an outcast for too long.

He said: "As to the implementation of the peace agreement and the role of the international peace force, the key of the success of its mission is even-handedness, just as partiality is the key of failure."

Croatia's Franjo Tudjman spoke of his aim for closer ties between his people and the European Union.

And Bosnia's Alija Izetbegovic, referring to his dream of a multi-ethnic Bosnia said he felt he was "drinking a bitter but useful medicine".

The deal was driven by President Clinton's team and Nato will move into protect the area - with overriding power - as a temporary measure.

The success of maintaining the deal will determine aid for the war-torn country where at least 200,000 people have died since the conflict began.

But the American president told the summit that it was up to the three leaders and their people to ensure peace.

"No one outside can guarantee that Muslims, Croats and Serbs in Bosnia can come together and stay together as free citizens in a united country sharing a common destiny," President Clinton said.

"Only the Bosnian people can do that."

dishevelled: in disarray; extremely disorderly（蓬亂的）