"There are few facts that could greater inflame passions and divide irreconcilably the people of Iraq than a conviction and severe punishment, especially execution, of President Saddam Hussein," said former US attorney general Ramsey Clark.

Speaking to Reuters in Jordan before flying to Baghdad for the resumption of the five-month-old trial on Sunday, he said the proceedings had stirred up hatred between Iraq's communities, pushing Sunnis and Shias closer to civil war.

"It creates sectarian passions that destroy rationality and reason and the search for truth," said Clark, an outspoken critic of the United States for organising the trial.

Saddam and seven others are being tried for crimes against humanity in connection with the death of 148 Shia men from the village of Dujail after a failed attempt on Saddam's life there in 1982.

"There is not a person who feels secure," Clark said of the trial. "It's impossible to hold a fair trial in such a climate ... A trial is supposed to be a rational process. Fear is the ultimate irrationality. How do you function in fear?"

Aljazeera