WASHINGTON, Dec 22: Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, in US custody for a week, was shaken but claimed to be the Iraqis’ chosen leader and used a lot of profanity, a handful of people who met him said on Sunday.

Ahmed Chalabi, a member of Iraq’s governing council, told CNN that Saddam was everything from banal to evil.

“The group wanted to see him directly,” Mr Chalabi told the television network, but said he did not pose any questions to Saddam during the half-hour meeting.

“I didn’t find much point in talking to him.”

“It was clear that he had learned nothing and forgotten nothing,” he said.

“The most important sentiment that I had was that this man is so banal, that he is responsible for the murder of millions of Iraqis and others,” he said.

“And he was sitting there — he was consumed by evil.”

Chalabi was one of four members of Iraq’s governing council to meet with the Iraqi leader immediately after his capture one week ago after months on the run.

They found Saddam Hussein huddled on the floor in pyjamas and a ski parka, they told CBS News.

The network reported that Saddam’s cell walls are decorated with the faces of 38 of his former officials who had been killed or captured. There are pictures of his two dead sons, Uday and Qusai. And one picture is of President Bush.

“I found him very defiant, very unrepentant. He felt absolutely no remorse towards the crimes he has committed against the Iraqi people,” Iraqi Governing Council member Muaffak al-Rubaie told CBS.

“Very unapologetic,” Mr Rubaie added.

“He was saying that he was an elected ... people have elected him to rule Iraq,” Mr Rubaie said.

CBS reported that the meeting lasted more than 30 minutes as Saddam sat cross-legged on the floor.—AFP