Top Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump has claimed that the world would be a better place if former dictators such as Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammer Gaddafi of Libya were still in power.

During an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday, the billionaire businessman also said the Middle East "blew up" during the administration of US President Barack Obama and when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

"100 percent," Trump said when asked if the world would be better off if Saddam and Gaddafi still ruled Iraq and Libya.

Both tyrants, who are now dead, committed atrocities against their own people for decades and were among the world's worst human rights abusers.

Saddam was executed in 2006 during the US-led invasion of Iraq. Gaddafi was killed during the course of an uprising in 2011.

"I mean, look what happened. Libya is a catastrophe. Libya is a disaster. Iraq is a disaster. Syria is a disaster. The whole Middle East. It all blew up around Hillary Clinton and around Obama. It blew up," Trump said.

Trump made similar remarks earlier this month on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Gruesome violence has plagued the northern and western parts of Iraq as well as large swathes of Syria ever since Daesh Takfiris launched their offensive in the two neighboring countries.

Libya has been torn apart by internal conflict between rival governments in Tripoli and Tobruk and the powerful militias battling one another across the country for control over key cities and resources.

Observers say that the US and its allies helped create and train the militant groups to wreak havoc in Muslim countries.