A day after Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hang, the Shiite-dominated government offered a major concession to his Sunni backers that could see thousands of members of the ousted dictator's Baath party reinstated in their jobs.

The No. 2 judge in the Saddam Hussein trial should not replace the resigning chief judge because of claims he belonged to the once-ruling Baath Party, according to the head of the body working to rid Baathists from Iraqi institutions.

FOUR US Army soldiers died in a roadside bombing, gunmen killed a Sunni Arab candidate for parliament, and militants tried to blow up a leading Shi’ite politician in separate attacks yesterday.

Iraqis living abroad began voting today and election officials expressed satisfaction that early polling by soldiers, patients and prisoners was carried out around the country without a hitch.

An election official today said Iraqi law will allow Saddam Hussein and thousands of other Iraqi detainees to vote in this weekend’s crucial constitutional referendum.