The photographs of smirking American soldiers tormenting naked detainees rocked the US military when they emerged in April, prompting claims that policies adopted in President George W. Bush?s ?war on terror? had encouraged the cruelty.

The US army, keen to demonstrate it is weeding out the culprits, has launched investigations into seven low-ranking suspects in relation to abuse at Abu Ghraib, which US officials have blamed on a few wayward individuals.

Two of the three suspects faced charges in relation to abuses depicted in some of the most widely circulated images ? including a human pyramid of naked detainees, a woman soldier holding a detainee on a leash and a hooded man standing on a box trailing wires from his wrists.

The Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad was infamous under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein as a place where his opponents were tortured, lending extra symbolism to images of abuse by US troops who describe themselves as liberators.

<B>Stripped naked </B>

The hearing, at a convention centre built by Saddam, aims to resolve any outstanding legal issues ahead of the start of the court martial of the trio ? Specialist Charles Graner, Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick and Sergeant Javal Davis.

The start date for their court martial has not been set, but may be announced by the judge, Colonel James Pohl, after the hearing which started yesterday, and may last several days. All three suspects have yet to plead.

The hearing in the US-led administration?s Green Zone headquarters may deal with little more than routine procedural matters, but might confront more significant issues such as any possible disputes over evidence, a US army officer said.

The US military has conducted at least 80 courts martial in Iraq since last year?s invasion, on charges ranging from theft or assault to involuntary manslaughter, the officer said.

Graner, who faces the most serious accusations, could be sentenced to up to 24 years and six months in jail if convicted of various charges. He is accused of photographing a detainee being dragged by Private First Class Lynndie England on a leash, and posing for a picture by a pile of naked detainees in November, the date when most of the alleged abuses took place.

Graner is also charged with forcing prisoners to strip naked and masturbate in front of each other, and forcing one detainee to simulate oral sex on another, before taking a picture.

Frederick faces charges including participating in an incident where a prisoner was hooded and made to stand on a box with wires attached to him, and told he would be electrocuted if he fell off -- an image splashed on front pages worldwide.

One US soldier, Specialist Jeremy Sivits, was sentenced to a year in prison in May after pleading guilty at a special court martial to abuse charges. England is expected to learn this month if she is to be court martialed.

<B>Matthew GREEN</B>

<B>Saddam Hussein could face death penalty</B>

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein could face the death penalty if he is convicted of war crimes, the head of the Iraqi tribunal that will try him said. Salem Chalabi, the tribunal head, told that Saddam could be executed if Iraq?s interim government lifts a suspension on the death penalty after assuming power on June 30.

The US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has suspended the death penalty. ?The statute of the tribunal says that for anybody convicted of the crime of murder or rape, they get what Iraqi law prescribes,? Chalabi told. ?If the suspension imposed by Ambassador Bremer is lifted, then there is the possibility of the death penalty being imposed.?

Saddam has not yet been formally charged but Iraqis accuse him of masterminding such crimes as the killing of thousands of northern Kurds with poison gas in 1988 and thousands of southern Shi?ites in uprisings in the 1990s.

Chalabi said the tribunal hoped to issue arrest warrants against the former Iraqi president and other members of his regime and take custody of them in the next few weeks or months.

?We?re negotiating quite intensively with the coalition forces,? Chalabi said. Saddam has been in the custody of US forces since his capture in December. Last week, interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said he expected the former strongman and other leaders of his regime would soon be given to the new Iraqi government for trial.