(Updates with Blair spokeswoman, fresh Brown quotes)

By Paul Majendie

LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - British finance minister Gordon Brown has condemned the way Saddam Hussein was hanged as "deplorable" -- in contrast to Prime Minister Tony Blair who has yet to comment in person on the execution.

Hours after Brown's comments, a spokeswoman for Blair said on Sunday the prime minister supports an Iraqi inquiry into the way the hanging was conducted.

"He believes the manner of the execution was completely wrong but that this should not lead us to forget the crimes he (Saddam) commmitted included the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis as a deliberate act of policy."

A mobile phone video showed observers taunting Saddam with shouts of "Go to hell" and chanting the name of a Shi'ite cleric before the former Iraqi leader fell through a gallows trapdoor.

The images provoked international criticism and further inflamed sectarian passions in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has pledged an investigation.

Brown, expected to take over as premier when Blair steps down this year, said: "Now that we know the full picture of what happened, we can sum this up as a deplorable set of events."

Brown, laying out his stall as future premier in a BBC TV interview broadcast on Sunday, said: "Even those people, unlike me, who are in favour of capital punishment found this completely unacceptable. It has done nothing to lessen tensions between the Shia and Sunni communities."

Asked about the hanging when visiting a London hospital on Friday, Blair said: "I've decided to talk about health today. I will talk about all those other issues next week."

Blair was on holiday at the Miami home of pop star Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees when the execution took place.

U.S. President George W. Bush has said Saddam's hanging should have been carried out in a "more dignified way" but argued that he received justice, unlike his victims.

Brown, who flew to Iraq in November to visit British troops stationed in the south of the country, promised that if he becomes premier he would speak his mind to Bush. Blair has been mocked by critics as "Bush's poodle."

"Obviously, people who know me know that I will speak my mind. I will be very frank," he told the BBC. "The British national interest is what I and my colleagues are about."

But he added: "I think everybody who also knows me knows that I have worked very closely with members of both parties in America over the years."

Brown faces a tough challenge stepping into Blair's shoes. The Labour government has been undermined by the war in Iraq and is beset by scandals, while the opposition Conservatives have revived their fortunes under youthful leader David Cameron.

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