The letter, delivered by the International Committee of the Red Cross, was addressed to Ali Hussein al-Majeed and was the second received by his family since the strongman was detained last year.

"He asked me to take care of my family and to keep the family's reputation anywhere and at any time," al-Majeed told Al-Arabiya.

"He recommends that I be a man, like my father and uncle, a man who can be trusted, and also to be the man of the family."

Saddam ordered al-Majeed's father, Hussein Kamel, and al-Majeed's uncle Saddam Kamel, killed in 1996 on suspicion of passing information concerning Iraq's weapons programs to Western officials.

Al-Majeed said the letter was delivered yesterday, three months after the date written on it.

AN ICRC team, including a doctor, visited Saddam in detention for the fourth time ON July 30, the organisation said yesterday.

ICRC Baghdad spokeswoman Nada Doumani refused to be drawn on the state of Saddam's health, after Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin said the deposed strongman was suffering from a chronic prostrate infection, a hernia and high blood pressure.

"We do not give details on the health of detainees that we visit, but we can confirm that he is under the medical care of the penitentiary authorities".

"His family has already received a message from him and we are going to pass on three others today. That will take time because they always have to go through a military censor," Doumani said.

Saddam was being held at Camp Cropper at Baghdad International Airport, which has about 96 other detainees in it. He does not have contact with the other prisoners, but goes out about three hours a day into a yard that has some herbs in it. (AP, AFP)