Baghdad, December 21, 2005 - One of Saddam Hussein's defence lawyers claimed that he was harangued by death threats on Tuesday after flying into Iraq on the eve of the resumption of the ex-dictator's trial.

Former Qatari justice minister Najib al-Nuami said labourers and workmen pushed towards his group, shouted insults and threatened his life, as he left the arrivals' hall at Baghdad airport accompanied by US soldiers.

"We will kill you. You shouldn't do that," he quoted them as saying.

"One of them tried to approach me physically but he was taken out by the (Iraqi) police," he added.

"I felt I'm being subjected to be assassinated next time," he said, speaking in English.

"Today (Tuesday) was threatening, tomorrow (Wednesday) will be a weapon."

Rapidly escorted to his car, Nuami said it was difficult to see how many people had made the threats, saying only "a few and more".

He accused the troublemakers of being young Iraqis, influenced by Shi'a who have called for Saddam's defence lawyers to be arrested and deported.

The trial of Saddam and seven of his Sunni Arab henchmen over the massacre of nearly 150 Shi'a villagers in the early 1980s has exacerbated already high sectarian tensions in Iraq.

One of Nuami's colleagues on Saddam's defence team, former United States attorney general Ramsey Clark, did not return to Baghdad and will not attend the hearing on Wednesday, out of fears for security.

Nuami said he would present a petition in court on Wednesday demanding better security, and threatened to boycott future hearings unless adequate protection was provided for the defence.

"Either we have to shift this court somewhere else or we have to provide proper security... We are not fighting a war, we're lawyers," he charged.

Two defence lawyers have already been assassinated since the trial began. - Sapa-AFP