AMMAN: The death row wait of two of Saddam Hussein's top aides who were due to hang with the ousted Iraqi president last month is "more terrifying" than the execution itself, their lawyer said yesterday.

Saddam's half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim Al Tikriti and revolutionary court chief Awad Ahmed Al Bandar "were told by the Americans they would be executed the same day as Saddam", Jordanian attorney Issam Ghazzawi said.

"On December 30, the Americans went to see Barzan Al Tikriti and Awad Al Bandar in their cells. It was after 1am and they woke them up to inform them they will be executed," said Ghazzawi.

"They took them from their cells to a building about 150 metres away and asked them to write their last will and testament," said Ghazzawi, who met separately with the pair in Baghdad.

Postponed

But according to the lawyer, Barzan and Bandar were left on tenterhooks until 8:30am and later "the Americans returned and told them the execution had been posptoned and returned the pair to their cells.

"This sort of wait is frightening and more terrifying than the execution itself. Had it happened in any other country the execution would have been scrapped," said Ghazzawi.

"Both men were very concerned about their fate," Ghazzawi said.

"What do you expect from someone who awaits execution at any time?"

The execution of the pair was originally fixed for Thursday but was postponed in the face of rising international pressure after the bungling of Saddam's hanging on December 30.

Barzan and Bandar both wept over Saddam's death, and Bandar said he wished he had been executed along with the ousted president, the lawyer said.

Ghazzawi also met ousted Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan and deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, both of whom are in the custody of the US-led coalition in Iraq.

Ramadan was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Dujail case. Aziz is being held without charge.

Meanwhile, the US military in Iraq has confiscated Saddam's books as well as notes and poems he wrote in jail to "screen" them before returning them to his lawyers, one of his attorneys said yesterday.

"We asked the Americans to hand us the books that Saddam read in jail as well as the notes and poems he wrote but they want to screen them and read them in full before giving them to us," Jordanian lawyer Issam Al Ghazzawi said.

"They promised to give them back once they are done but they did not set a date," he added.