Saddam has confessed and deserves to die: Talabani

Meanwhile, four American security guards were killed Wednesday when a bomb targeted a US diplomatic convoy in the southern Iraqi town of Basra, a British diplomat told AFP.

"Saddam Hussein deserves to die 100 times," Talabani, a former Kurdish leader who spent much of his life fighting the ousted regime but is publicly opposed to the death penalty, told Iraqi television overnight.

Saddam, who has been in US custody since December 2003, is to go on trial next month before the Iraqi Special Tribunal over a 1982 massacre in a Shiite village north of Baghdad following an attempt on his life there.

"There are tonnes of documents incriminating Saddam Hussein," said Talabani.

According to a spokesman for Talabani, the judge on the case met with with president two weeks ago and told him Saddam had "confessed" his guilt over several charges levelled against him.

"He said he was able to extract a confession from the mouth of Saddam for crimes" including the massacre of thousands of Kurds during the late 1980s, said Hiwa Osman, a presidential spokesman.

Kurds hold Saddam responsible for the deaths of up to 182,000 people they claim perished during the so-called Anfal campaign, launched by the former regime in 1987 to suppress rebellious Kurds in the country's north.

Saddam, who will stand trial on October 19 with seven former henchmen including his former vice president and secret police chief for the 1982 massacre of Shiite villagers in Dujail, faces the death penalty if convicted.

Saddam's lawyers have protested that they have not been given enough time to prepare for the trial, the first of many the ousted ruler is due to face. However some Iraqi officials say he may be executed if found guilty after the first trial.

Defending the trial, Talabani said "no political decision to eliminate Saddam Hussein has been taken and the judiciary is independent."

"If he had fallen into our hands during the war we were waging then we could have eliminated him, but now we have to put him on trial."