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In Germany, home to more than 80,000 Iraqis, exiles cheered as they watched the images of Saddam's statue being pulled down in central Baghdad.
Adnan Abduhraman, of the Al-Rafedein cultural association in Berlin, said some Iraqis had even gone to the US embassy to thank the Americans.
He said he hoped "we Iraqis will rule our country ourselves," but feared US troops would stay some time. He was mistrustful of the United States: "They helped (Saddam's) Baath party into power, they made Saddam strong."
Abduhraman, 55, has not been contact with his family in Iraq since the war began three weeks ago, and is bracing for the worst: "I saw on the television that a bomb fell 40 metres from my house."
Iraqis in the southern German city of Nuremberg had been among the first to celebrate Wednesday, blowing car horns and waving Iraqi, British and US flags in a noisy but peaceful parade.
It was a similar tale around the world -- relief tinged with concern.
In London, around 20 exiles broke into Iraq's diplomatic mission Wednesday and defaced portraits of Saddam.
"This is a dream that comes true," said an emotional Bashir Abas, an exile of 20 years. "When I saw the statue of Saddam falling down, I was choked, it's fantastic."
But the boss of a Lebanese restaurant pointed out that while Iraqi exiles "are happy to get rid of Saddam Hussein... they will be even more happy whan they get rid of the Americans."
Many of Denmark's estimated 24,000 Iraqis celebrated Saddam's fall into the night, especially Kurds.
They said they were concerned about scenes of looting and hoped they would be able to return soon, maybe in a few months when the situation had calmed.
A few also criticised the US-led military action, saying Saddam would have buckled under diplomatic pressure without the need for war.
In Sweden, which has an Iraqi population of about 70,000, 30 mainly Kurdish Iraqis celebrated outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm.
"Now we will be able to return to Iraq with pride, without having to sell ourselves to the regime," Farid Alsaati said as his family in Akalla, a suburb north of Stockholm, looked forward to fulfilling "a dream for 35 years."
The small Iraqi community in the Czech Republic was happy too.
"We are happy that the regime has fallen and we want the war to end as soon as possible so that innocent people are not killed," Khalid al-Ali, president of the Iraqi Club, told AFP.
"Our suffering will end soon," said Bahaa Aldin, who deserted from Saddam's army a few years ago.
The Austrian foreign ministry said several hundred Iraqis had requested political asylum at its embassy in Amman.
Outside Europe, a jubilant crowd of several thousand mostly Shiite Iraqis chanting "Down with Saddam" rejoiced in the "liberation" of their homeland in Dearborn, a heavily Arab suburb of Detroit.
"We will go back home, inshallah (god willing)," said Bayadaa Al-Bayali, a 20-year-old mother-of-two who fled her homeland when she was 12.
"We want to taste freedom in our country."
For many, the joy was mixed with concern for the welfare of relatives back in Iraq -- their fate, for the most part, still unclear because of bomb damage to the country's communications infrastrucure.
"I hope with all my heart they are still alive," Mohammed Alhashemi said of his family.
The 35-year-old has not heard from his seven sisters and almost two dozen nephews and nieces in Samawa, southern Iraq, since the conflict began.
"I'd like to go back next month if possible. I haven't seen my family since 1991," he said.
But San Al-Fadl, a 36-year-old Shiite whose sister was hurt in the bombing of the southern city of Basra, said the US-led invasion of Iraq was not a liberation.
"This so-called freedom is a big lie," he added. "Their smart bombs killed children. Hopefully America will pay for it."
And in Iran, home to more than 200,000 Iraqi refugees, around 2,000 danced Wednesday in the streets to celebrate Saddam's fall, handing cakes and sweets to passers-by. Many of the crowd wept with joy.
"Neither Saddam, nor America, we only want Islam," they chanted.
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