Saddam Hussein may be hanged within hours, senior Iraqi officials and the ousted president's defense team said on Friday.
One senior Iraqi source told Reuters key legal issues had been resolved and he could go to the gallows shortly. Another official said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was meeting key figures, including the Justice Minister, to agree the details.
But the start of a week-long Muslim holiday could delay the hanging and some senior Iraqi officials still doubt there will be a rapid execution.
The State Department denied comments from Saddam's chief defense lawyer and Iraqi state television that U.S. forces had already handed the former president over for execution.
In any case, formal custody may not be very significant since U.S. troops were likely to remain on hand to the end as Washington is concerned the process goes smoothly.
An appeals court on Tuesday upheld Saddam's November 5 death sentence for the killings, torture and other crimes against the Shi'ite population of the town of Dujail.
A leading parliamentarian from the dominant Shi'ite majority behind Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Maliki was waiting only for a ruling from clerics on whether Saturday's start of the Eid al-Adha holiday, coinciding with the haj pilgrimage to Mecca, meant the execution should be postponed for a week.
If it goes ahead, Maliki, whose authority has been questioned as
Iraq slides toward all-out civil war, would seem to have forced through a decision popular with Shi'ites in the face of resistance from Saddam's fellow Sunnis and from Kurds keen to see Saddam first convicted of genocide against them.
DAWN HANGING?
After a day of conflicting signals, during which the Justice Ministry had said it could legally do nothing for a month, the senior Iraqi source said debate over whether a presidential decree was needed to override that was over.
"That is resolved so it seems it's possible he may be hanged tonight," the source said.
Najib Naimi, a former Qatar justice minister who served on Saddam's legal defense team, said he expected his client to be hanged at dawn on Saturday.
"We think he might be executed by tomorrow as a gift for the Iraqis," he told BBC News 24.
"Maybe early tomorrow morning he might be executed ... we are now talking with them regarding the body itself," he said. "We would like to have his body to return it to the family so they can bury him at any place they wish."
A source in the team that successfully prosecuted Saddam for crimes against humanity said prosecutors, who should have a representative at any execution, had not yet been invited to attend.
Shi'ite politician Bahaa al-Araji said Maliki had asked Shi'ite religious leaders and clerics from Saddam's Sunni Arab minority whether Saddam could be executed immediately. He told Reuters they may approve a hanging before noon (0900 GMT), when the festival formally begins, or say it should be delayed.
An execution at the start of Eid could be highly symbolic. Marking the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son, many Shi'ites could regard Saddam's death as a blessed gift. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, who felt Shi'ites manipulated Saddam's trial.
Defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi told Reuters Saddam had been handed to the Iraqi authorities and that attorneys had been told they could not visit their client. Earlier he said he was told to arrange to collect Saddam's personal effects -- a move another defense lawyer said indicated he could die on Saturday.
Saddam, whose appeal against a conviction for crimes against humanity was rejected this week, has long been formally in Iraqi custody but physically held by U.S. military guards.
Saddam could hang in hours: Iraqi officials - Yahoo! News 
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