BAGHDAD, Dec 29: Saddam Hussein could be hanged within hours, a senior Iraqi source told Reuters late on Friday after Saddam's lawyer said US forces had handed over the former military dictator to Iraqi authorities for execution.

US officials, however, insisted that the 69-year-old ousted dictator was still in American hands. And a leading politician said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was waiting for a religious ruling on whether Saturday's start of the Eidul Azha holiday, coinciding with the Haj pilgrimage to Makkah, meant the execution should be postponed for a week.

An appeals court on Tuesday upheld Saddam's Nov. 5 death sentence for the killings, torture and other crimes against the Shia population of the town of Dujail.

After a day of conflicting signals, during which the Justice Ministry had said it could legally do nothing for a month, the senior Iraqi source said debate over whether a presidential decree was needed to override that was over.

“That is resolved so it seems it's possible he may be hanged tonight,” the source said.

Najib Naimi, a former Qatar justice minister who served on Saddam's legal defence team, said he expected his client to be hanged at dawn on Saturday.

“We think he might be executed by tomorrow as a gift for the Iraqis,” he told BBC News 24.“Maybe early tomorrow morning he might be executed ... we are now talking with them regarding the body itself,” he said.

“We would like to have his body to return it to the family so they can bury him at any place they wish.”

Earlier Saddam's chief defence lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, told Reuters that US officials had transferred Saddam to Iraqi authorities. He said he had been told to arrange to collect Saddam's personal belongings -- a move another defence lawyer said indicated he could die on Saturday.

A US official in Baghdad denied Saddam had been handed over. “He is still in US custody,” the official told Reuters.

US troops have hitherto physically kept guard over Saddam and were expected to hold on to him until the last minute to avoid security breaches.

A source in the team that prosecuted Saddam for crimes against humanity said prosecutors, who should have a representative at any execution, had not yet been invited to attend.

Shia politician Bahaa al-Araji said Maliki had asked Shia religious leaders and clerics from Saddam's Sunni Arab minority whether Saddam could be executed immediately.—Reuters