On Monday the prosecution also played a CD of a conversation between Saddam and his former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan in which the two men reportedly discussed the retaliatory destruction of farms and orchards belonging to Dujail villagers.

Saddam's half-brother and feared former secret police chief Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti dismissed the latest handwriting findings.

"Even if you bring 50 handwriting experts, they all will say the same thing," said Barzan, who has launched repeated tirades against the prosecution and the court during the trial.

"We know that the decision against us has already been taken as this court is politically driven."

In the previous April 19 hearing, chief judge Rauf Abdel Rahman ruled after seeing a report by handwriting experts that signatures linking the ousted Iraqi leader to the massacre of the Shiites were "authentic".

"The experts verified these documents, and the signatures of Saddam Hussein were found to be authentic," Abdel Rahman said.

Saddam has dismissed the evidence, insisting the documents were forged, and claimed the witnesses testifying against him have been bribed by the prosecution.

In earlier hearings, Saddam acknowledged he had ordered the trial of Dujail villagers suspected of plotting to assassinate him, but stopped short of admitting he was responsible for their executions.

His lawyers have contested the earlier handwriting report, demanding that a neutral body make a judgment on the authenticity of the signatures.

The documents presented by the prosecution came from the Revolutionary Command Council, the former regime's highest decision-making body.

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