"I will take responsibility for using the chemical weapons. No one can direct the strike without my approval," the voice claimed by trial prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon to be that of Saddam is heard saying on the tape.

"It is better to use this weapon in crowded places to be effective on as many people as possible," the voice is heard saying.

Faroon produced the dramatic tape soon after the resumption of the genocide trial of six former Iraqi regime officials accused of slaughtering 182,000 Kurdish villagers in the 1980s.

Saddam, hanged on December 30 after being found guilty of crimes against humanity in a separate trail, had been chief accused in the genocide trial.

But the chief judge, Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah, said at the start of the session that the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) had dropped all legal proceedings against him.

Saddam had been a familiar sight in the dock since the proceedings began on August 21 in Baghdad, showing defiance from his front row position and frequently railing against court officials and witnesses.

Despite his execution, the ousted despot's presence loomed large at the trial, with his seat at the front of the dock conspicuously empty and his voice booming from the audio tape.

"We have to remove the Kurdish people to other governorates and countries, to end the Kurdish nationality and to stop saboteurs' acts," the voice says.

"We have to allow them to live and work in Tikrit so that they will become Arabs."

Faroon said the tape proved the former regime intended "to fight Kurdish culture, it is a genocide."

The voice is also heard saying, "The Kurds are very aggressive people, all their characteristics are just like the Iranian."

Faroon did not reveal when the tape was recorded nor to whom Saddam was speaking.

"Whenever you see saboteurs acts, cut their heads off immediately," the voice is heard saying.

The ongoing case centres on the slaughter of 182,000 Kurdish villagers during the so-called Anfal campaign, which ran between 1987 and 1988.

Chief among the co-accused is Ali Hassan al-Majid, the former defence minister and a first cousin of Saddam who became widely known as "Chemical Ali".

Faroon during Monday's session also presented a video clip that he says showed Ali, who is charged with genocide, planning chemical attacks.

"I will attack them with chemical weapons," Ali is heard shouting twice in the video.

Pictured wearing a military uniform, Ali also expresses complete disregard for expected international criticism.

"To hell with the international community," he shouts.

The footage also showed pictures of children and women killed by chemical weapon attacks.

"We see families... men, women, children... weeping. I want the whole world to look at these pictures, these children, these human bodies," Faroon said.

"There is a child here on the chest of his mother. Take a look at this child and the burns on his skin. Are they saboteurs, agents for Iran?"

While the video was being played, the former defence minister, dressed in traditional Arab garb, listened silently to the prosecutor.

The other five co-accused have been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

If convicted, all six defendants could face the death penalty.

Iraqi authorities and human rights group accuse Saddam's regime of having meticulously carried out military attacks, some using chemical bombs, against the Kurds.

The accused claim the campaign was a necessary counter-insurgency operation against Kurdish guerrillas who had sided with Iran against Saddam at the peak of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980-88.

Dozens of Kurdish witnesses have testified, describing how thousands of men, women and children had been brutally put to death.