The 371 coffins, draped in Kurdish flags, were laid out in rows at the Sami al-Rahman park in Arbil, capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, for the ceremony attended by political leaders and families of victims.

The coffins contained the remains of victims of the brutal 1988 "Anfal" (Spoils of War) campaign carried out by Saddam's forces in which an estimated 182,000 ethnic Kurds are estimated to have died.

The 371 bodies were found in four mass graves near the cities of Mosul, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah in the north and Samawa in the south since 2004 and have been positively identified. They are to be buried at a cemetery in Sulaimaniyah on Wednesday.

"This ceremony makes us feel pain but at the same time happiness because they are back in their fatherland," Kurdish president Massud Barzani told the ceremony, referring to the 371 victims.

"We want guarantees that these kinds of crimes will not target our people ever again," he said.

"We want redress for the families of the victims from the Iraqi government," he added. "We also want the search to continue for the remains of those still missing."

Family members demanded that those convicted of taking part in the genocide be put to death.

"The decision of the court must be carried out quickly," said Rahman Mohammed Beirut, 56, whose husband and daughter were killed in the genocide.

"We want justice to be done," she added, holding a picture of her daughter, whose body has never been found.

One of the chief architects of the slaughter, Ali Hassan al-Majid -- widely known as "Chemical Ali" for his use of poisonous gas against the Kurds -- is in US military custody in Baghdad awaiting execution, along with two other former henchmen of Saddam.

Majid, former defence minister Sultan Hashim al-Tai and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, the former armed forces deputy chief of operations, were all convicted of playing a key role in the genocide and were sentenced to death on June 24.

But the US military which is holding the three condemned men says they will be handed over for execution only after a legal row between some of Iraq's highest ranking officials is resolved.