BAGHDAD, Dec 14: Iraq will put senior members of Saddam Hussein's toppled Iraqi government on trial from next week, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Tuesday.

"The trial will begin next week of the symbols of the former regime who will appear in succession to ensure that justice is done in Iraq," Mr Allawi told the interim national assembly.

Without naming them, Mr Allawi clearly referred to Saddam Hussein and 11 top members of his former ruling Baathist government who are in US custody and awaiting trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Set to be tried by a special tribunal for cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, Saddam Hussein and his associates could face the death penalty if found guilty.

Saddam was captured by US forces in a hole in the countryside near his hometown of Tikrit on Dec 13 last year and is being held on a US base known as Camp Cropper, near Baghdad.

The trials had been delayed due to preparation difficulties and complex legal procedures, Mr Allawi said. "We have finished the procedures and nominated (judges) and I can say, with certainty that the trials will begin next week and continue," he said.

But the Iraqi lawyer of detained former prime minister Tareq Aziz, Badiaa Aref Ezzat, rubbished such a tight timetable. "It is impossible to begin the trial next week. Perhaps he was talking about the start of the judicial inquiry which a lawyer must attend," he said.

"After that, the lawyer has to familiarize himself with the files, which takes a minimum of a month. If the trial begins without a lawyer attending a judicial inquiry, the trial will be invalid," he added.

Saddam's Jordan-based defence team also denounced the plans as "invalid". It has accused Washington of denying them access to their client. Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin sowed confusion when he said the trial of the former president and his aides would start by end-March rather than next week.

"The trial is scheduled to start some time in the first quarter of next year," Mr Amin told a news conference in Geneva, where he is attending an international meeting on human rights issues in Iraq.

"I doubt Saddam will be the first one to be tried but there are others," he said, stressing that preparations were ongoing. The 67-year-old former president appeared before an Iraqi judge in July to hear the preliminary charges levelled against him, including the killings of political opponents and the gassing of Kurds in the 1980s.

He refused to accept the charges and challenged the legitimacy of the court, which he described a "theatre" in a torrent of rhetoric. Iraqi and US officials have been divided on when the much-anticipated trials will actually get underway.

Interim Iraqi government had said Saddam's trial would start this year, or at least before general elections next month. Then transport minister Louwei Hatim Sultan al Aris said earlier this month it would begin after the vote.

Just one day before Mr Allawi's address to the national assembly, Washington said the trial should not be hurried and would probably begin next year. "The process of preparing a trial or preparing a trial of such a complicated nature is one that does take time," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"The nature of this work is that much of the work is behind the scenes until it gets to a further stage of this investigation," he said. "I would expect some of the things to come in early 2005 to be more visible as they prepare for trials and further develop the structures of this special tribunal," Boucher said.

Mr Amin said Saddam Hussein was in good health in his cell at Camp Cropper, part of the vast US base around Baghdad's airport. -AFP