Berlin: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has at least three doubles who stand in for him at official events and has not appeared in public personally since 1998, German public television channel ZDF reported.

ZDF said on September 26 that research by a German medical expert had shown that the Iraqi leader had avoided all public functions for the last four years.

Instead, he was replaced at them by people who bear a striking physical resemblance to him.

Saddam also skips meetings of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, the legislative and executive body he chairs, by sending a look-alike instead, the channel said.

The medical expert has used identification techniques accepted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to distinguish between the real Saddam and his stand- ins, according to ZDF.