Wednesday, April 5 2006 16:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: Ousted leader Saddam Hussein accused Iraq's Shiite-led Interior Ministry of killing and torturing 'thousands of people as he appeared in court today (Apr 5, 2006) for questioning by judges and prosecutors on charges of killings of Shiites in the 1980s.

Saddam, who is being cross-examined for the first time in his six-month-old trial, was the sole defendant in the courtroom as the session opened.

His seven co-defendants testified one by one in earlier sessions over their role in a crackdown against Shiites in the town of Dujail launched in 1982.

Today's session came a day after prosecutors indicted Saddam on separate charges of genocide, accusing him of trying to exterminate Kurds in a 1980s campaign that killed an estimated 100,000 people.

The charges will be dealt with in a separate trial.

In court today, Saddam demanded an international body examine signatures alleged to be his on documents the prosecution has presented concerning the crackdown, including an order approving the death sentences. Some of Saddam's co-defendants have insisted signatures said to be theirs are forged.

"You should resort to an impartial, international body and not a body 'that kills thousands people on the streets and tortures them the Interior Ministry'," Saddam told Abdel-Raouf, referring to the now Shiite-controlled ministry, which some Iraqis accuse of backing Shiite militias that have assassinated Sunni Arabs.