Saddam to be chained for courtroom

Saddam ~Hussein is to be handcuffed, chained and put before a Baghdad judge to hear his arrest warrant read out to him, Iraqi security chiefs said today.

The captive former leader will make a symbolic court appearance "within days" to mark the handover of his custody from US to Iraqi control.

Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser and a former member of the governing council, told CBS news: "We wanted to show our people that this miserable soul is in the hands of Iraqis now."

Saddam is in US custody at a secret location in Iraq. The country's new prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said he would be transferred shortly to one of his own former jails as part of this week's power transfer to a sovereign Iraqi government.

However, it remains unclear whether he will be guarded by Iraqi jailers or continue to be watched over by Americans. Coalition forces have expressed fears that the Iraqis cannot keep him secure enough and that the transfer of custody should be in the legal sense only.