Iraq's deposed dictator Saddam Hussein appeared before an Iraqi tribunal today but refused to recognise its authority and said the "real criminal" was US President George W. Bush.
A defiant Saddam, who arrived at the courthouse in handcuffs and chains, was read seven charges under a preliminary arrest warrant and told his rights, reporters granted access to the heavily guarded court said.
"I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq," he repeated. He refused to recognise that he was guilty of a crime in invading and occupying Kuwait in 1990, telling the judge: "I did that for the Iraqi people. How can you defend these dogs?"
The judge reprimanded Saddam for his language and reminded him he was in a court of law. He looked around with half-smile, saying: "This is all a theatre, the real criminal is Bush."
Saddam (67) has been held as a US prisoner of war since his capture in December and appeared thin and tired, reporters said. He arrived in a US helicopter at a military base and was transferred to an armoured bus to be driven to the makeshift courtroom near Baghdad international airport.
Two burly Iraqi guards escorted him into the courthouse. He was dressed in civilian clothes, with a grey jacket and a trimmed beard. His chains were removed before he reached the courtroom. His handcuffs were taken off inside the room where he sat down facing cameras that recorded the proceedings.
The arraignment was the first step towards a trial that could help Iraq come to terms with 35 years of Baathist brutality, though it may not start for many months. Charges against Saddam and 11 of his top lieutenants are expected to include war crimes and genocide, as well as crimes against humanity, but it is not yet clear what offences each individual will be charged with.
"The judge has prepared a separate charge sheet for each one of them," said Mr Salem Chalabi, a US-trained lawyer who has led the work of the special tribunal.
Saddam's arraignment took place near Baghdad airport, where the US military is thought to have held the 12 men at a detention centre in solitary confinement. Saddam had no lawyers to represent him at the arraignment.
Similar proceedings are to be held later today for his former aides, including former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and Hassan Ali al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged role in using poison gas against Kurds and Iranians.
The US military handed the 12 men over to Iraqi legal custody yesterday, but will continue to guard them following the return of sovereignty to Iraqis on Monday.
Saddam, accused of ordering the killing and torture of thousands of people, was captured by US forces in December near his hometown of Tikrit after eight months on the run following his overthrow last April. The public last glimpsed him, dishevelled and with a bushy beard, in television footage shot soon after his capture.
Kuwait has called for Saddam to be sentenced to death over Baghdad's seven-month occupation of the Gulf state in 1990-91.
Iraq's interim government is considering restoring the death penalty, suspended during the US-British occupation. The government, led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, wants to show Iraqis the occupation is really over, despite the presence of US-led foreign troops, and to prove it can curb violence.
A roadside bomb detonated near a central Baghdad hospital this morning, injuring a senior Iraqi Finance Ministry official and killing two of his guards.
Mr Ehsan Karim, the head of the ministry's audit board, suffered slight injuries in the bombing, said Colonel Adnan Hussein, head of the Interior Ministry's information office. Mr Karim's guard and driver were killed in the explosion near Yarmouk Hospital. Four bystanders were also injured.
Later, a soldier from the multinational force was killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb hit their convoy outside the northern city of Mosul, a US military spokesman said. He declined to give the nationalities of the victims.
Last night, US forces destroyed what they said was a safe house used by a group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the rebellious city of Falluja. Witnesses said the air strike, the fourth such attack on suspected Zarqawi safe houses in Falluja in two weeks, wrecked the house and killed six people. Hospital sources said 15 people were injured in the strike, some of them women and children.
There was no indication that Zarqawi, who has claimed responsibility for several suicide bombings and the beheadings of an American and a South Korean hostage, was in the building.
The United States today increased to $25 million the reward offered for Zarqawi's capture. The bounty was raised to $10 million in February from an initial $5 million in October.