Tuesday, June 13 2006 16:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: The judge in the trial of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants on crimes against humanity declared that today would be the last day of defence witness testimony.

The surprise announcement came a day after a stormy trial session in which defence lawyers said they were not being given enough time to prepare the case and repeated claims of difficulties in summoning witnesses.

"Our witnesses have been intimidated four of our witnesses were assaulted and arrested," said US attorney Curtis Doebbler, one of Saddam's lawyers.

"We ask that the trial be stopped and you give us additional time to prepare," he said.

Instead, Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman read out confessions from the defence's key witnesses who were arrested following their testimonies two weeks ago.

In their confessions the witnesses had recanted their testimony and claimed they had been paid off or coerced by the defense, according to the presiding judge.

The defense was not given a chance to react to these confessions today and the trial went straight into further witness testimony from one of Saddam's former bodyguards.

"I want to tell the defence attorneys that we are not going to listen to their endless rhetoric," the judge said.

"The session is to present their witnesses. They have to choose one of the options either rhetoric or witnesses," he said.

Abdel-Rahman also announced that Saddam's half-brother, former head of intelligence Barzan al-Tikriti, would not attend the session following his expulsion from the court yesterday.