(Updates with PM, scuffles among Iraqi revellers) CANBERRA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The execution of Saddam Hussein was a significant moment in Iraq's history and marked the end of a tyrant who denied justice to countless thousands of his own people, Australia said on Saturday. Saddam was hanged at dawn in Iraq on Saturday, a month after an Iraqi court sentenced him to death for crimes against humanity. His death prompted celebrations from Iraqi expatriates in Australia, with about 30 people taking to the streets in Sydney's west to cheer, dance and wave Iraqi flags. But police were later forced to intervene and separate revellers after minor fights broke out between rival Iraqi groups. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said while Australia opposed the death penalty, Saddam had faced justice and a fair trial and had been found guilty of crimes against humanity. "The people of Iraq now know that their brutal dictator will never come back to lead them," Downer said in a statement. "While many will continue to grieve over their personal loss under his rule, his death marks an important step in consigning his tyrannical regime to the judgment of history and pursuing a process of reconciliation now and in the future." Australia, a close ally of the United States, was one of the first nations to commit troops to the war in Iraq and maintains about 1,400 troops in and around Iraq to provide security and help train Iraq's new defence forces. Downer said it was a credit to the Iraqi people that Saddam was given a fair trial for orchestrating the execution of 148 men and boys in the village Dujail nearly 25 years ago. Prime Minister John Howard said Saddam's trial was significant and proved Iraq was working hard to embrace justice and democracy."I believe there is something quite heroic about a country that is going through the pain and the suffering that Iraq is going through, yet still extends due process to somebody who was a tyrant and brutal suppressor and murderer of his people," Howard said in a statement. "That is the mark of a country that is trying against fearful odds to embrace democracy and it is a country that deserves sympathy and support and not to be abandoned." Analyst Andrew Vincent, director of Middle Eastern studies at Australia's Macquarie University, said the execution was expected, describing the trial as flawed. "I think it was a deeply flawed trial, and it was known from the very outset that death would eventuate," Vincent told Australia's Sky television.
