Veteran French lawyer Jacques Verges, who acted for Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie and the terrorist known as Carlos, confirmed Saturday he has been asked to defend the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Verges also announced he would ask the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva to be able to meet his client under Red Cross protection, saying he feared for Saddam's life, and warning the occupation forces must not be allowed to kill Saddam "to avoid a trial in which their own liability will become apparent."

Verges, 79, was reported to have said that he had received a letter from Saddam Hussein's nephew Ali Barzan al-Takriti giving him the task. "In my capacity as nephew of President Saddam Hussein I commission you officially via this letter to assure the defence of my uncle," the letter read. Asked how he would organize the defence, Verges said he had "three possible destinations: Baghdad, Geneva -- the headquarters of the ICRC -- and The Hague, where the International Criminal Court is based".

Verges has also taken on the task of defending former Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz who surrendered to US forces in April 2003. Verges' defence of Barbie at his 1987 trial helped bring France face-to-face with its ambiguous wartime past. More recently he became vice-president of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic and represented the former Yugoslav leader in a suit before the European Court of Human Rights.

Speaking on France's TV5 television channel Saturday, Verges said urgent measures were required to protect his new client Saddam Hussein. He produced a fiery criticism of the way Saddam had been paraded on television shortly after his arrest in December, "like a beast in a fairground," saying this contravened the Geneva conventions on prisoners. He said he would ask the International Red Cross to ensure respect for these conventions, and would also apply to the International Criminal Court on the matter.

Verges said his client could not be accused of "possession or use of weapons of mass destruction without it being known that these weapons had been sold by the Americans". The person who had sold these weapons had been none other than US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who previously visited Baghdad in 1984 as a special emissary of president Ronald Reagan.

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The attorney said he feared for Saddam's life. His trial was "impossible without the American government itself being in the dock".  "Either it will be a real trial with witnesses or a phoney trial, and that's what it'll probably be". He said Saddam Hussein had not looked normal after his arrest.  "People capable of drugging a prisoner are capable of killing him", he said, warning: "We must not allow the occupation forces to kill Saddam Hussein to avoid a trial in which their own liability will become apparent."

Recently, Verge has acted on behalf of a governor of the island of Corsica accused of arson, a leading member of President Jacques Chirac's political party accused of illegal fund-raising, and a Moroccan-born gardener, Omar Raddad, accused of murdering his employer.