Saddam clings to hope US will enlist his aid-lawyer

NEW YORK, Jun 25 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein is certain his trial for crimes against humanity will result in the death penalty, but clings to the hope that Washington will use the sentence as leverage to enlist his aid to tamp down the insurgency in Iraq, the New York Times reported today.

Saddam's chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, told the newspaper in an interview conducted last week in Amman, Jordan, Saddam ''knows the sentence has been issued from Washington, and if there is an even greater punishment than the death sentence, he'll get it.'' But Saddam clings to hope, believing the way out is to become the United States' ''last resort; they'll knock on his door,'' the lawyer said. ''The United States will use this sentence to pressure Saddam to save it from its mess.'' Saddam even believes the United States might reinstall him as president of Iraq, al-Dulaimi told the Times.

Deteriorating relations with Iran figure into Saddam's reasoning, the lawyer added. ''The Iranian influence is a threat to American interests. ... The only person standing in the face of Iran, which is the enemy of America, is Saddam Hussein.'' As Saddam's trial nears its end, the deposed Iraqi leader spends time in his cell reading the Koran and writing poetry, said the Sunni Arab lawyer, who told the Times he took the case out of a desire to defend Iraq's legitimate ruler and expose the sham of the U S occupation.

Part of Saddam's defence will be that nearly a third of the 148 deaths for which he is on trial either occurred under other circumstances or the ''victims'' were not actually dead, the lawyer told the Times. The other executions were ordered by Saddam in accordance with Iraqi law, al-Dulaimi said.

REUTERS SRS HT1345