Hussein's chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said the ousted Iraqi president believed the verdict was timed to boost President George W Bush before US mid-term elections on 7 November and urged a delay. He also warned of bloodshed if Saddam is sentenced to death.

Hussein (69) and seven co-accused have been charged with crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shi'ite villagers after an attempt on his life in the Iraqi town of Dujail in 1982.

If convicted, Hussein faces death by hanging, a prospect Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said cannot come soon enough.

Even if Hussein is convicted, the fulfilment of a death sentence may be many months, even years, away as it would have to wait until all appeals are exhausted. He is due back in court on Tuesday in another trial, for genocide against ethnic Kurds.

Various Sunni Arab insurgent groups see the ousted president as a figurehead in their resistance against US troops. He remains a deeply divisive figure in a country riven by sectarian violence between the Sunni Arab minority, Kurds and Shi'ites who were oppressed by Hussein but now dominate political power.

The verdict is the high point of a historic, US-sponsored experiment in international justice intended to unite Iraqis in exorcising three decades of dictatorship. The murder of several trial officials and the escalating violence in Iraq has marred proceedings however.