Baghdad, Iraq ? Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis to embrace “brotherly coexistence” and not to hate U.S.-led foreign troops in a goodbye letter posted on a Web site Wednesday, a day after Iraq’s highest court upheld his death sentence and ordered him hanged within 30 days.

A top government official, meanwhile, said Saddam’s execution could proceed without the approval of Iraq’s president, meaning there were no more legal obstacles to sending the deposed dictator to the gallows.

One of Saddam’s attorneys, Issam Ghazzawi, confirmed to The Associated Press in Jordan that the Internet letter was authentic, saying it was written by Saddam on Nov. 5 – the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal for ordering the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail.

“I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking,” said the letter, which was written in Arabic and translated by the AP.

“I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us,” it added, referring to the invasion that toppled his regime nearly four years ago.

Against the backdrop of sectarian killings that have dragged Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims into civil warfare over the past year, Saddam urged his countrymen to “remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence.”

But he also voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency, saying: “Long live jihad and the mujahedeen.” He urged Iraqis to be patient and rely on God’s help in fighting “against the unjust nations.”

An Iraqi reads a newspaper with the front page dedicated to news of the ordered execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. A letter from Saddam posted Wednesday on the Internet urged Iraqis not to hate U.S. troops, only their leaders, and offered his soul

Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of that struggle. “Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs,” he said.

Despite his calls for conciliation among Iraqis, Saddam’s legacy is brutal. He put suspected foes to death without trial, oppressed Kurds and Shiites, waged war on Iran and twice fought U.S.-led armies. He left an impoverished nation now gripped by sectarian bloodshed and an insurgency against the U.S. presence.

Violence struck Baghdad again Wednesday, with a car bomb killing eight civilians and wounding 10 near an Iraqi army checkpoint. Four more civilians died in a mortar attack in a Shiite neighborhood, and police found the bodies of 51 apparent victims of sectarian killings.

Saddam will remain in a U.S. military prison near the airport, Camp Cropper, until the day of the execution, at which point he will be handed over to Iraqi authorities, an official said.