No delay in execution, says Maliki

Baghdad: Saddam Hussain's execution will be carried out without delay or interference from anyone, state television quoted Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki as saying on Friday.

"Nothing and nobody can abrogate the ruling," Maliki said to families of some of Saddam's victims. "Those who reject the execution of Saddam are insulting the souls of the martyrs of Iraq."

"Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," Al Maliki said.

On Tuesday, an Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam's death sentence for the killing of 148 people in Dujail in 1982. The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.

Maliki's comments came after Saddam's lawyers said that the former dictator has been handed over to the Iraqi government, in an apparent step towards his execution.

"I understand they have handed him over," said one defence lawyer who declined to give his name. The Justice Ministry, however, denied the report and said that Saddam would not be executed before January 26.

Another lawyer, Khalil Al Dulaimi said that US officials had asked him to pick up the personal effects of Saddam, who has been sentenced to death.

Al Dulaimi had urged the United States not to hand over Saddam because he is a "war prisoner" and warned that it could spark an increase in sectarian violence in the country.

Saddam has been held at Camp Cropper, an American military prison close to Baghdad's airport.