Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is depressed and has begged the Iraqi government for mercy, Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said in an interview published Monday.

"He is distraught and depressed," Allawi said of Saddam, the man who was Iraq's president for 24 years and is awaiting trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

"Saddam and his colleagues are not the giants that the media sometimes talks about. Saddam sent us an oral message in which he begged for mercy. He said that they were working in the public interest and did not mean any harm," Allawi said in an interview with the pan Arab al-Hayat newspaper.

He also said he had survived four assassination attempts since his interim government came to power in June, the last just five days ago when his guards became suspicious of a car outside Baghdad's Green Zone compound housing the government and the U.S. and other embassies.

The car then blew up and a battle between gunmen and his guards ensued. Two non-Iraqi Arabs were arrested, he said.

Allawi would not give their nationality, but said they belonged to Islamist militant groups.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant Washington says is allied to al Qaeda, has threatened to assassinate Allawi, which he described in the interview as "despicable above all for the Iraqi people and for Iraq."

"For someone who appears to be connected with international organizations to come along and threaten Iraq's prime minister, whoever he may be, is unacceptable," Allawi said.

Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group has claimed responsibility for most of the bloodiest suicide attacks in Iraq since Saddam was ousted in the U.S.-led war last year.

Source: CD/Agencies