The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven co-accused is due to resume tomorrow with the testimony of defence witnesses in connection with the killings of 148 Shias in the 1980s.
Separately, prosecutors said they had completed preparing a second trial, for genocide against the Kurds, and had passed it to the court. Hearings could start within a couple of months.
Saddam (69), who faces a death sentence if found guilty of crimes against humanity in the first trial, is not expected to take the stand when witnesses for a local Baath party official begin testifying in the heavily fortified Baghdad courtroom, defence counsel said.
Khamis al-Obeidi, one of Saddam's lawyers, told Reuters dozens of witnesses, some from the town of Dujail, are ready to testify to the innocence of Saddam, his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and the six other defendants.
The 148 Shia men and youths were killed or executed after an attempt on Saddam's life in 1982 in Dujail, north of Baghdad.
Witnesses are expected to be called for each of the eight defendants in an order in which witnesses for Saddam will appear last. Officials expect three days of hearings this week.
The trial, the first of a dozen or more Saddam may face, has been marred since it started in October by the killing of defence lawyers, Saddam's diatribes and the resignation of the initial chief judge, who complained of government interference.
During the last session on April 24th, a five-member team of experts said signatures and handwriting on documents linking Saddam and six co-accused matched those of the former leader.
Saddam and Barzan, former chief of the feared intelligence services, have said there was no crime in prosecuting the Dujail Shias because they had plotted to kill a head of state at a time when Iraq was at war with neighbouring, Shia Iran.
Last week, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a member of Saddam's defence team, said the trial was a sham designed to justify the US-led invasion.
Court officials said they were preparing to set a date for a new trial for Saddam, this time on charges the former leader committed genocide against Kurds in the late 1980s.
Saddam's co-accused will include his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali", for his role in a poison gas attack against the Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988 that killed 5,000 people.