Saddam Hussein pleaded not guilty to murder, torture and other charges today and questioned the legitimacy of the US-created tribunal set up to try him as his long-awaited trial finally got under way in Baghdad

As millions of Iraqis watched spellbound on television, the deposed dictator was escorted by two armed guards into a heavily guarded courtroom in the former headquarters of his Baath Party.

He took his place in a large metal pen with seven co-defendants accused over the massacre of 143 Shia Muslim villagers more than 20 years ago.

Despite refusing even to confirm his identity in a heated exchange with the chief judge, and a later scuffle with security guards, Saddam still managed to enter a not guilty plea to all charges.

At his lawyer's request, the trial was adjourned after just a few hours. Although Saddam's defence team says it needs three months to prepare its case, the court will sit again on November 28.

Saddam, 68, looked thin and sallow after almost two years in US military detention. He wore a dark suit and open-collared white shirt and carried a battered copy of the Koran.

As the trial started, Saddam refused to confirm his name in a heated exchange with Rizgar Mohammed Amin, a Kurd who will head five-strong panel of judges - all secretly trained in the UK - chosen to try the deposed president.

Instead, he questioned Mr Amin's qualifications as a judge and angrily denounced the tribunal as a military court set up by an administration whose authority he did not recognise.

The tribunal was set up by an order of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority two days after his capture near Tikrit in December 2003.

"Who are you? I want to know who you are," he said. "I reserve my constitutional rights as the president of Iraq. I do not recognise the body that has authorised you and I don’t recognise this aggression.

"What is based on injustice is unjust ... I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect."

Later, during a break in proceedings, Saddam tried to leave the room. When the court guards tried to grab his arms, however, he would not let them and there followed a brief scuffle - with Saddam shouting loudly - before he was allowed to leave unaided.

Saddam and seven close aides and lower-ranked Baathist officials are facing charges that they ordered the killing in 1982 of nearly 150 people in the mainly Shia Muslim village of Dujail north of Baghdad after a failed attempt on his life.

The other defendants include Saddam’s former intelligence chief, his former vice president and other lower-level Baathist civil servants. The charges also include forced expulsion and illegal detention. If convicted, the eight men face the death penalty by hanging.

Saddam's defence team, led by Khalil al-Dulaimi, appeared to suggest that his defence strategy will focus not on the details of the massacre, but rather on the broader question of the legitimacy and competence of the court.

Iraqi prosecutors are preparing other charges against Saddam and his officials - including for the Anfal Operation, a military crackdown on the Kurds in the late 1980s that killed some 180,000 people; the suppression of Kurdish and Shia revolts in 1991; and the deaths of 5,000 Kurds in a 1988 poison gas attack on the village of Halabja.

As the trial neared, dozens of Saddam supporters took to the streets of Tikrit, 110 miles north of Baghdad, despite the presence of large numbers of Iraqi police and soldiers, backed by US troops.

If a death sentence is issued in the Dujail case, it is unclear whether it would be carried out regardless of whether Saddam is involved in other trials. He can appeal against a Dujail verdict, but if a conviction and sentence are upheld, the sentence must be carried out within 30 days. A stay could be granted to allow other trials to proceed.

However, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shia Muslim Prime Minister who actively opposed Saddam’s rule during years in exile, showed his eagerness to see any sentence carried out.

"We are not trying to land on the moon here," he said. "It’s enough (to try Saddam) on Dujail and Anfal. The tribunal is just and open, he has a defence lawyer and the verdict will match the crime."

Mr al-Jaafari, whose Dawa Party claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt in Dujail, leads a Shia-Kurdish coalition government that came to office six months ago.

THE CASE AGAINST SADDAM

Execution warrants for 143 victims found inside security ministries in Baghdad after Saddam’s regime fell

Chief Investigative Judge Raid Juhi, who interrogated Saddam, said last week that the court had "thousands of eyewitnesses" for the Anfal genocide campaign Western forensic experts have unearthed evidence from scores of mass graves

Lawyers for Saddam’s co-accused say that although former high-ranking Baathists such as Tariq Aziz will not give evidence against him, they said he was in overall charge of all military decisions Others will establish a direct link with flows of money looted from the Iraqi regime just before its fall

THE DEFENCE

The Iraqi Special Tribunal set up by US-led occupying powers to try him is illegal under Articles 3 and 4 of the Geneva Convention. It was created by statute No1 dated 10.12.2003 — when Iraq was still run by the post-invasion Coalition Provisional Authority — and signed by the Iraqi Governing Council, an unelected Iraqi body appointed by Paul Bremer, the US adminstrator

As President, Saddam was immune from prosecution under the Iraqi Constitution

Saddam is still the legitimate ruler of Iraq, based on the 2002 referendum in which he scored a "100 per cent" approval rating

The trial must be postponed for at least 45 days to complete the reading of documents. Some are incomplete, others irrelevant

Saddam was not granted access to a lawyer until last December, more than a year after his arrest, and has not had enough access to prepare his legal team.

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