The trial of Saddam Hussein has resumed after a three-week break, with charges of genocide in a separate case looming for the former Iraqi president.

The only defendant in the court, a composed Saddam Hussein walked into the tribunal and launched into a tirade against the interior ministry as Rauf Abdel Rahman, the chief judge, opened the session.

Saddam said the ministry "kills thousands in the street and tortures them".
He was interrupted by the judge, who told him to refrain from political statements. Saddam replied, "You're scared of the interior minister - he doesn't scare my dog."

Saddam and seven other co-defendants are on trial for allegedly executing more than 140 inhabitants of the Shia village of Dujail after an assassination attempt against the deposed president in 1982.

The Iraqi High Tribunal on Tuesday said it would charge Saddam and six others with genocide for their role in the killing of Kurds in the late 1980s during the Anfal campaign.

Jaafar al-Mussawi, the chief prosecutor, last week said that the recess was meant to give the judges time to draft the specific charges in the case, re-examine evidence and move the trial to the next phase, but much remains to be done.

Mussawi also said the prosecution has new documents linking the defendants to the case.

"They involve communications and messages exchanged between high officials" of the previous government over the Dujail affair, Mussawi said.

The issue of documents will be central to tying the defendants to the crimes they are charged with, but several of the defendants cast doubt on the authenticity of the documents presented, many of which bear their signatures.

"Saddam Hussein finished his testimony and now has to be questioned on Wednesday by the prosecution," Mussawi said on Monday.

Saddam's lawyers, however, say that the former Iraqi leader had not completed his testimony and has more to say.

This delay is only the latest in the decidedly awkward progress of the trial.

The 17 sessions of the trial have been boycotted by defendants and their lawyers, lawyers have been assassinated and judges have resigned.

After the last session, some experts said the trial seems to be moving forward.

Miranda Sissons, a senior associate with the International Centre for Transitional Justice observing the trial, said: "What's been important about the last couple of sessions in March is that there has been no major crisis, which is a change."

"It is beginning to look like a legal process," she said.

With the defense rejecting the legitimacy of the court, there have been concerns expressed internationally over the fairness of the trial.

In a report to the UN Human Rights Commission, Leandro Despouy, who monitors the independence of judges and lawyers, pointed to "notorious failings" in the trial and suggested the accused should instead answer to "an international tribunal which could count on the cooperation of the United Nations".

Saddam has rejected suggestions from his defense team to move the trial out of Iraq.

"Saddam told us on this issue, 'I was born in Iraq and I want to die there'," said Saddam's Jordanian lawyer Salah al-Armuti.

PHOTO CAPTION

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during his trial. (AP)