"Today at 10:15am the Republic of Iraq assumed legal custody of Saddam Hussein," said a terse statement from interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office.

"Saddam said good morning and asked if he could ask some questions," Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal that will try the former dictator, told Reuters.

"He was told he should wait until tomorrow," said Chalabi, who was in the courtroom where Saddam and 11 of his former lieutenants were turned over to Iraqi legal custody.

But many of the other former Iraqi officials were nervous and agitated, said Chalabi, who has received numerous death threats since taking on the task of helping amass evidence against Saddam and preparing a special tribunal to try him.

Chalabi, who has received death threats since he began work on the tribunal, said the 67-year-old Saddam looked in good health and had sat in a chair during the closed proceedings.

Saddam's former aides appeared nervous or hostile and one of them, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali for his role in using chemical weapons, was shaking.

Saddam, accused by Iraqis of ordering the killing and torture of thousands of people during 35 years of Baathist rule, had been held as a prisoner of war since US forces found him hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit in December.

A U.S. official said the United States formally transferred Saddam and the others to the charge of Iraq's new government but that U.S. forces would retain physical custody of them.

Iraq's president was quoted as saying the death penalty, suspended during the U.S.-led occupation, would be reinstated and the national security adviser said it could apply to Saddam.

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

An official in Allawi's office had said earlier that Saddam and his former aides would be told at the initial court appearance that they would be charged Thursday.

"Tomorrow Saddam and 11 others will be officially charged," said the official. "The focus at this point will be on Saddam and tomorrow's proceedings will mark the start of his trial."

Saddam will be charged with crimes against humanity for a 1988 gas massacre of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, according to Chalabi.

French lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, one of a 20-strong team appointed by Saddam's wife to represent him, said the former president would refuse to acknowledge any court or any judge.

"It will be a court of vengeance, a settling of scores," Ludot told France Info radio, saying any judge sitting in the court would be under pressure to find Saddam guilty. Ludot said he expected Saddam to say last year's U.S.-led war was illegal.

Among others to be handed over were Former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz; Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, his secretary; Sabawi Ibrahim, Saddam's maternal half-brother; Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; and Aziz Salih Numan, Baath Party regional commander and head of the party militia.

Those former officials and others among the 55 most wanted Iraqis on a U.S. list are seen as witnesses who could help prove a chain of command linking Saddam to crimes against humanity.

Government offices were shut Wednesday for a new national holiday declared to mark Monday's transfer of sovereignty.

MORTAR ATTACK

Insurgents fired at least 10 mortar rounds at a U.S. base on the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport yesterday, wounding 11 soldiers, two of them seriously, and starting a fire that burned for well over an hour.

That attack, along with a car bomb that exploded outside a police headquarters in Samawah, 150 miles south of the capital, Baghdad, were yet more evidence that insurgents have no plans of letting up their attacks even after the U.S. coalition authorities handed over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on Monday.

Despite the end of the occupation, about 160,000 foreign troops most of them Americans remain in Iraq to provide security and train Iraq's new security services. American officials have warned that the transfer of sovereignty would not stop assaults.

Guerrillas struck the logistics base on the edge of Baghdad's airport at about 8:15 a.m., said Lt. Col. Richard Rael, their commander. The base is operated by the New Mexico Army National Guard's 515 Corps Support Battalion.

"We're OK," Rael said. "We'll get back to business as usual."

A pall of black smoke hung over the airport for an hour after one of the 82 mm mortar rounds struck a petroleum products yard. There were no injuries from the fire.

The base has been subject to almost daily mortar attacks, but this was the first time the attacks caused significant casualties and damage.

Two people were wounded in the car bombing in Samawah, which set two other vehicles ablaze, a hospital official said.

Meanwhile, the United States was still looking for U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. On Tuesday, his status was changed from "missing" to "captured."

An insurgent group has claimed the kidnapping of Hassoun and has threatened to behead him unless Iraqi prisoners are released. Hassoun was shown blindfolded with a sword brandished over his head in a video aired on Al-Jazeera television.

Hassoun, of Lebanese descent, was last seen about a week before the videotape was broadcast Sunday, the military said.

"The circumstances surrounding the Marine's absence initially indicated that he was missing," a statement by the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said. "However, in light of what we have observed on the terrorists' video, we have classified him as captured."

(Reuters and AP)