'We hereby urge the world's humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, to intervene immediately and conduct an investigation into the reasons behind the deterioration in the president's health,' member of the legal team Ziyad Najdawi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

'We hold the US troops completely responsible for any developments in this respect,' he said.

Najdawi was responding to a statement Sunday by Jaafar al- Moussawi, chief prosecutor in the trial of Saddam, that the former dictator had been admitted to hospital.

'The defence team looks with suspicion to Moussawi's statement, because three defence lawyers met with the president on Saturday and found him in good health and high morale,' Najdawi said.

The three members were former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, head of the defence panel Khalil Duleimi and the Egyptian lawyer Mohammad Munib, he added.

He admitted that Saddam and several members of the former Iraqi leadership had been on hunger strike for the past two weeks to protest the court's failure to respond to the demands of the defence team.

'The president did not take any meal since July 8,' he said.

The trial of Saddam and seven co-defendants on charges of killing 148 Iraqi Shiites in the village of Dujail in 1982 was scheduled to resume on Monday.

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Saddam in hospital after hunger strike

By Ahmed Rasheed
Reuters

Children peek behind window grills next to the defaced painting of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on the wall of the post office building in Baghdad, July 11, 2006. (Namir Noor-Eldeen/Reuters)

Saddam Hussein was being fed through a tube on Sunday after 16 days on hunger strike and an Iraqi official said he will not attend court on Monday.

"To avoid a deterioration in his health he was taken to hospital for medical attention and food was given to him through his mouth," chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi told Reuters. "He will not be able to attend the session tomorrow."

A U.S. military spokesman said Saddam was not in critical condition.

"Saddam Hussein continues to maintain his hunger strike and is voluntarily receiving nutrition through a feeding tube. His condition is constantly monitored by medical personnel and is not life-threatening," he said.

Saddam lawyers accuse the U.S. military of force-feeding the ousted leader, whose hunger strike has added to the chaos of his trial, which is approaching its conclusion.

The U.S. military says the 69-year-old ex-president has been drinking sweet coffee and liquid nourishment and receiving psychological counseling to try to persuade him to eat.

Saddam and his co-accused are on trial for the killing of 148 Shi'ite men and teenagers after an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982.

He is also awaiting trial in August for genocide against the Kurds in the late 1980s under the so-called Anfal campaign.

The Dujail trial, which U.S. and Iraqi officials had hoped would project a new image of democracy in postwar Iraq, has been marred by the killing of three defense lawyers.

Saddam and his half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti have often launched tirades in the chamber in a trial which saw the resignation of the first chief judge in protest over what he called government interference.

Saddam's chief defense lawyer accused U.S. military authorities of force feeding the toppled president to make him end the hunger strike.

"The U.S. military are force-feeding the president to break his will and end his hunger strike to protest against the trial and its illegality," Khalil Dulaimi told Reuters in Amman.

Dulaimi said he had held a three-hour meeting with Saddam on Saturday to confer on defense tactics in which a decision was taken to boycott Monday's session. He said he had found Saddam in good health, despite a weight loss of several kilograms.

"They have clearly exhausted all means at their disposal to convince him to end the strike and now they are resorting to force ... this is a gross violation of his rights."

Saddam, who was absent as the U.S. backed court heard final arguments in defense of two minor co-accused, said he had boycotted the session to protest against a decision to convict him through unlawful proceedings.

Dulaimi said the defense team would boycott Monday's session in protest at the court's refusal to meet their demands for a fair trial.

"After all our legal demands that represent the minimum for a fair trial have been refused, the defense team decided to continue its complete suspension of its attendance of the trial sessions," he said.

(Additional reporting by Sulaiman al-Khalidi in Amman)

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