Salem Chalabi, a US-educated lawyer and nephew of the head of the Iraqi National Congress, was named as general director of the tribunal, and he has named a panel of seven judges and four prosecutors, INC spokesman Entefadh Qanbar said on Tuesday.

The tribunal, with a 2004-2005 budget of $75 million, will also prosecute any members of Saddam's regime who are charged, Qanbar said. A date has yet to be set for the trial of Saddam, who was captured by US troops in December and has since been held by US troops at an undisclosed location in or near Baghdad .

AFP adds: A Jordanian lawyer heading a defence team to represent Saddam Hussein on Wednesday branded the selection process of Iraqi judges to try the ousted Iraqi president a "violation of international law".

Mohammed Rashdan also told AFP he was preparing to lodge a suit against the US government and President George W. Bush for preventing him from meeting his client.

"The appointment of (Sami) Chalabi violates international law," Rashdan said. "The defence committee will file suit against this selection if a trial takes place."

A senior aide to Iraq's interim Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi said Tuesday in Baghdad that "lawyer Sami Chalabi was named president of the court" which will try Saddam.

Entifadh Qanbar, whose boss is also the head of the pro-US Iraqi National Congress, said that seven judges and five prosecutors have also been selected.

"By law the country of aggression (United States), has no right whatsoever to change the constitution of Iraq, issue laws or appoint judges and any measure it takes is null and void," Rashdan said.

Last month Rashdan said he was appointed by Saddam's first wife, Sajida, and eldest daughter Raghad to represent the former dictator, who has been in detention since US forces captured him on December 13.

"So far I have not been allowed to travel to Iraq," by the US-led coalition, Rashdan said.

"So we are preparing to lodge a suit against the US government and its president, Bush, because the US administration is preventing us from meeting with our client," he said in reference to a defence committee which he heads.

Rashdan said the suit "which is being prepared in coordination with French lawyers will be lodged with the French high court ... because France is the mother of all law".

He also dismissed claims by veteran French lawyer Jacques Verges that he has been retained to represent the former Iraqi leader.

"We have been asked by the family to say that our strategy is the one retained by the family who reject any other strategy," Rashdan said.

"Any lawyer who wishes to join the defence committee must contact us in Amman because I am now the overall coordinator of this committee," he added.

Verges, who won a reputation for controversy by taking on Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie and terrorist "Carlos the Jackal" as clients, said last month that Saddam's nephew, Ali Barzan al-Tikriti, asked him to represent the toppled president.