Iraq is planning elaborate birthday celebrations for President Saddam Hussein, who turns 64 on Saturday, including a grand parade in his hometown Tikrit.
State-run newspapers said official celebrations marking Saddam's birthday were taking place throughout the country. The festivities, they said, ranged from exhibitions, rallies, speeches and theatrical performances.
The festivities will climax on Saturday with a parade in Tikrit, 170 km north of Baghdad.
Saddam usually marks his birthday by receiving groups of singing and dancing children from across the country.
"April 28th is the birthday of all Iraqis", declared the weekly al-Zawra, owned by Saddam's eldest son Uday.
State radio and television broadcast special programmes and interviewed writers, officials, sports figures and ordinary citizens who pledged loyalty to Saddam.
The Iraqi parliament for the first time recommended on Monday that April 28th be made an annual national holiday. The decision, however, has to be ratified by the country's highest authority, the Revolutionary Command Council which is chaired by Saddam.
In power since 1979, Saddam maintains a solid hold on Iraq despite two wars - the 1980-88 war with Iran and the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait.
Since then he has brushed off several US and British military strikes, the latest of which was in February this year when Western warplanes bombed targets south of Baghdad.
And despite more than 10 years of UN sanctions, Saddam remains in full control of power.