Wednesday, September 7 2005 10:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: Iraq's President has said that Saddam Hussein had confessed to killings and other 'crimes' committed during his regime, including the massacre of thousands of Kurds in the late 1980s.

President Jalal Talabani told Iraqi television last night (Sept 6, 2005) that he had been informed by an investigating judge that he was able to extract confessions from Saddam's mouth about crimes such as executions which the ousted leader had personally ordered.

Asked about specific examples, Talabani, a Kurd, replied 'Anfal,' the codename for the 1987-88 campaign, which his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan maintains led to the deaths of about 182,000 Kurds and the destruction of dozens of Kurdish villages.

Those villages included Halabja, where thousands of Kurdish villagers were gassed in 1988.

Saddam faces his first trial on Oct. 19 for his alleged role in another atrocity, the 1982 massacre of Shiites in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad, following an assassination attempt there against him.

The Iraqi Special Tribunal has decided to conduct trials on separate alleged offenses rather than lump them all together in a single proceeding.

Saddam could face the death penalty if convicted in the Dujail case, the only one referred to trial so far.

Iraqi television aired the interview so late that it was impossible to reach Saddam's lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, or officials of the special tribunal. However, Abdel Haq Alani, a legal consultant to Saddam's family, condemned Talabani's remarks and said the alleged confession comes as a surprise.