A WORCESTER teenager who was part of a "human shield" used by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein says he wants the leader disarmed.

Stuart Lockwood, aged 16, was in Kuwait with his family during the Iraqi invasion in 1990 and was taken to Baghdad.

The teenager, who was five at the time, was used by the dictator to show how well the Western hostages were being cared for during the Gulf war.

He was seen by millions of television viewers as Saddam beckoned him towards him to sit on his knee.

But Stuart pulled away as the president ruffled his hair.

Stuart and his family, parents Derek and Glenda and older brother Craig, had been moved from Kuwait to Baghdad.

They had been kept under armed guard at an industrial installation in the city to deter the allies from bombing it.

The youngster was eventually freed along with his mother and brother, but they had to wait for Derek to join them.

Now, Stuart, of Hunstanton Close, St Peter's, says he is convinced the dictator would be willing to use weapons of mass destruction.

"I don't know why I shrank away from him," he told a national newspaper today.

"It was instinct, just something I knew I had to do.

"It is only now that I fully realise what a sinister and ruthless man he is."

He said he realised that disputes should be resolved without war wherever possible, but he was worried about what weapons Saddam might have.

"He is a dangerous man and I believe he really might use them. He does have to be disarmed."

World leaders had a very difficult decision to make, he said, but they should act with the backing of the United Nations.

"War should only be used as a last resort, when every possible peaceful means has failed."