Saddam and seven co-defendants are due in court for the eighth hearing since the trial began three months ago following the last-minute appointment of Rauf Rashid Abdel Rahman, a previously unknown magistrate, as chief judge.

Saddam and his fellow accused are being tried for the massacre of more than 140 Shiites from the town of Dujail after the former Iraqi leader survived an assassination attempt there in 1982.

If proved guilty, they could be hanged.

The trial, which started October 19, received a jolt earlier this month when former chief judge Rizkar Mohammed Amin, also a Kurd, resigned after he was criticized for being too lenient with the defendents.

Tuesday's trial is expected to hear testimony from more complainant witnesses whose identities were likely to be disguised for fear of reprisals.

The harrowing testimony so far has detailed torture and abuse of detainees after hundreds of villagers were rounded up following the assassination attempt on Saddam in Dujail.

The next series of witnesses will be those who can shed light on the events and could well include former members of the regime, said a Western official close to the court.

Officials anticipate that the entire trial could stretch at least until late May or June, if there are no major delays.

Amin's replacement, Abdel Rahman, was born in Halabja, the Kurdish town which became a symbol of repression in 1988 when Saddam's forces used chemical weapons against its inhabitants, killing several thousand people.

"He will remain as presiding judge until such a time as an official decision is taken on whether to accept judge Rizkar's resignation," Raed al-Juhi, the chief investigating judge, said Monday.

The Iraqi government has yet to accept Amin's resignation. If accepted the five-member court panel will vote on a permanent new chief judge.

Amin has said he would not withdraw his resignation.

"I have no intention of going back on my decision," a close associate quoted him as saying Monday. He said the judge planned to watch the rest of the trial on television from his home in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah.

"The official position of the court has always been, since the time the (resignation) letter was submitted, he is considered to be on leave," said the Western official who had suggested he might yet return.

It was initially believed that the next most senior member of the five-member panel, Said al-Hammashi, would take over as presiding judge.

But Hammashi, a Shiite, has himself been criticized by the commission set up to root out members of Saddam's former ruling Baath party from official positions.

Saddam, 68, is currently only on trial for the Dujail massacre.

But should he later face prosecution for the massacre of Kurds in the 1980s, a new judge would have to be appointed because of Abdel Rahman's connection with Halabja.

Saddam's co-defendants include two members of the ousted president's inner circle and five lesser officials.

They include Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, one of Saddam's three half-brothers and a former director of the feared Mukhabarat intelligence service, and Taha Yassin Ramadan who served as vice president from 1991.

Both men took part in the 1968 coup that brought Saddam's Baath party to power.