Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said opposing Saddam's execution was an insult to his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam's rule.

"Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," al-Maliki said.

State television ran footage of the Saddam era's atrocities, including images of uniformed men placing a bomb next to a youth's chest and blowing him up in what looked like a desert, and handcuffed men being thrown from a high building.

"The Americans want him to be hanged respectfully.If Saddam is humiliated publicly or his corpse ill-treated,that could cause an uprising and the Americans would be blamed." Najeeb al-Nueimi A member of Saddam's legal team

With US forces on high alert for a surge in violence, people registered to attend the hanging gathered in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone before they were to go to the execution site, the Iraqi official said.

Those cleared to attend the execution included a Muslim cleric, lawmakers, senior officials and relatives of victims of Saddam's brutal rule, the official said. Aides to al-Maliki were waiting for US representatives to arrive at his office to set the hour for the execution, the official said.

He did not disclose the location of the gallows.

Saddam Hussein's daughter has asked that his body be buried in Yemen, a source close to the family said on Saturday. 

His daughter Raghd, who is exiled in Jordan, "is asking that his body be buried in Yemen temporarily until Iraq is liberated and it can be reburied in Iraq," a source close to the family said.

Defence lawyer Issam Jhazzawi said earlier Saddam's daughters were bracing for his imminent death. "The family are praying for him every minute and are calling on God that He let his soul rest in peace among the martyears," he said.

Raed Juhi, spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, said documents related to the execution would be read to Saddam before the execution. The documents included the red card, al-Maliki's signed approval of the sentence and the appeal court's decision.

Saddam has been in US custody since he was captured in December 2003.

"I don't believe that Saddam's execution would remotely help bring peace to the country. ... Even politically I think it would carry ... more negative consequences than positive ones."                   -Italian Premier Romano Prodi. Click to read more comments on executing Saddam

On Thursday, two half brothers visited Saddam in his cell, a member of the former dictator's defense team, Badee Izzat Aref, told The Associated Press by telephone from the United Arab Emirates. He said the former dictator handed them his personal belongings.

A senior official at the Iraqi defense ministry also confirmed the meeting and said Saddam gave his will to one of his half brothers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Saddam's lawyers later issued a statement saying the Americans gave permission for his belongings to be retrieved.

An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam's death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in the northern Iraqi city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the hanging should take place within 30 days.

Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, who also appealed in US court, is expected to be executed along with Saddam. Also slated for execution is Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief.

There had been disagreements among Iraqi officials in recent days as to whether Iraqi law dictates the execution must take place within 30 days and whether President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies had to approve it.

In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis."

"Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves," said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI, a dominant party in al-Maliki's coalition. "Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam."

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