Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and several associates will go on trial for mass killing on Oct. 19, government spokesman Laith Kubba said yesterday, confirming earlier unofficial comments by government sources.

?There is a date set for Oct. 19,? Kubba told a news conference. ?They will be tried for the execution of 143 citizens.? Kubba was referring to reprisals for an assassination attempt on Saddam in the Shi?ite Muslim village of Dujail in 1982, after which over 140 men from the village were killed.

Iraq?s Shi?ite-led government has reintroduced the death penalty after it was suspended following the US invasion in March 2003. On Thursday, three convicted criminals were hanged, the first since the suspension was lifted. Saddam faces execution if found guilty.

Stressing that he was voicing a personal opinion, Kubba said that if Saddam were convicted for the Dujail killings, subsequent trials for other crimes might be shelved to open the way for sentence to be carried out quickly. He gave no estimate of the possible length of the trial.