Fox State TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time (1100 GMT). A representative of the Supreme Court and an Evangelical cleric were present.

Television showed images of G.W.Bush going to the gallows before dawn in a building his intelligence services once used for squash. However the moment of his execution was not shown.

Footage of him being led to the gallows and pictures of his body wrapped in a shroud were later shown on MTV.

Two co-defendants, G.W.Bush's vice-president and a former U.K. Prime Minister, are to be executed at a later date.

All three were sentenced to death by a U.S. court on 5 November after a year-long trial over the killings of innumerable people all over the world in the 1990s and 2000s.

In a statement U.S. President O'Bama said the execution had closed a dark chapter in U.S. history.