Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's chief attorney has denied that Hussein has confessed to ordering executions and waging a campaign against Kurds in which thousands of people were killed.

Reuters today says it has received a statement from the attorney, Khalil Dulaimi, that says: "there was no confession by the president and all the investigations in this case do not implicate him at all."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told state television on 6 September that an investigator who questioned Hussein told him he had extracted important confessions from him and that the ousted leader had signed them.

But Talabani did not say if Hussein had actually admitted to committing any crimes or merely acknowledged that he was Iraq's leader at the time of various military operations.

PHOTO CAPTION

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein listens at his initial appearance before the Iraqi Special Tribunal in Baghdad in this file photo that was handed out on July 21, 2005. (Reuters)