Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will face charges of premeditated murder, torture and forced expulsion and disappearances when he goes on trial next week for a 1982 massacre of Shiites, a court official said today.

Iraq’s president said Saddam Hussein had confessed to killings and other “crimes” committed during his regime, including the massacre of thousands of Kurds in the late 1980s, and should be executed many times over.

Iraqi authorities have set October 19 as the date for the start of the trial of Saddam Hussein, an official said. A Western diplomat discounted the report as ”posturing".

An Iraqi court has decided to begin the first trial of Saddam Hussein on October 19 and is in the process of notifying his legal team, a legal official said today.