"I am trying to make a very clear distinction between what I think is a legitimate opposition to a war which I believe to be an unjust one, and a certain confusion of values, of priorities," he said.

"The fact that this war is illegimate does not seem to me to endow Saddam Hussein with any more legitimacy," Vargas Llosa said.

The Iraqi president "remains a bloody dictator, one of the worst the modern world has known," said the Peruvian writer, in Madrid for the launch of his latest book, "El paraiso en la otra esquina" -- which means "Paradise in the other corner".

Vargas Llosa argued the war in Iraq was illegitimate because "it was being fought against the will of the United Nations, the only institution representing international order".

"I deplore this war not only because of the victims, for the innocents who die, but also because of its consequences," he said, citing the rift between European states as one of its most serious repercussions.

"We must make a huge effort to be rational and prevent this war from continuing to cause such terrible damage, which can last long after the wounds of the victims have healed," Vargas Llosa said.

SPACE.WIRE