Iraq's Foreign Minister denied today that Iraq was too volatile to try Saddam Hussein and said the former dictator would face a fair hearing in his own country.
Mr Hoshyar Zebari said the special tribunal set up by the interim Iraqi government in the country was suitable for trying Saddam.
"We will get a great deal of international support and understanding from many countries in seeing that the judicial process goes smoothly and according to international standards," he told BBC television.
"There would be international observation, as well, and we will seek international expertise to see that this trial would be fair and just."
He added: "We believe as Iraqis that Saddam should be tried before an Iraqi court."
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Mr Zebari's remarks add weight to the call by the interim Iraqi government for the former dictator to be tried before the special tribunal.
The call comes in spite of the United States saying it has not yet decided what to do with the former dictator.
The tribunal was set up specifically to hear cases involving leading members of the former regime accused of genocide and other crimes against humanity.
"We will deal with Saddam Hussein," said Mr Adnan Pachachi, a member of the 25-seat interim Governing Council. He was an unjust ruler responsible for the deaths of thousands of people."
Lieut-Genl Ricardo Sanchez, the top US military commander in Iraq, said the American-led coalition must still decide on Saddam's status.
"At this point, that has not been determined. We continue to process Saddam at this point in time, and those issues will be resolved in the near future," Lieut-Gen Sanchez told reporters at the coalition's Baghdad headquarters.
Before Saddam's capture, top US officials in Baghdad had privately acknowledged the former dictator was likely to be handed over to the new Iraqi government to stand trial.
But Amnesty International criticised the new Iraqi tribunal as flawed. It demanded that Saddam - as commander in chief of Iraq's armed forces - be classified as a prisoner of war.
The Governing Council decree establishing the tribunal left a final decision on using the death penalty to a transitional government scheduled to assume full sovereignty by July 1st.
Mr Ahmad Chalabi, another member of the Governing Council, said: "Saddam will stand a public trial so that the Iraqi people will know his crimes."
But human rights groups cautioned that the Iraqi decree establishing the new tribunal was fundamentally flawed because it was proclaimed by an unelected body and without consultation with the Iraqi people or the international community.
PA