WASHINGTON, Dec 30: The Defence Department said on Friday that US forces in Iraq are ready for any escalation of violence there even as condemned former President Saddam Hussein waged an 11th-hour appeal in American courts to spare his life.

“US forces in Iraq are obviously at a high state of alert anytime because of the environment that they operate in and because of the current security situation,” Defence Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

US forces will take into account “social dimensions that could potentially led to an increase in violence, which certainly would include carrying out the sentence of Saddam Hussein,” Whitman said.

Closer to home, US officials said that people should be vigilant about the possibility of a terror attack associated with Saddam’s impending execution in Iraq. But an advisory that the FBI and the Homeland Security Department sent to local law enforcement agencies and intelligence community figures was routine and did not cite any specific threat.

Saddam has been in US custody since he was captured in December 2003.

As his execution drew near, Saddam’s lawyers filed an appeal trying to stave it off. However, US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who heard arguments from attorneys by phone, rejected the challenge on Friday night. She said US courts do not have jurisdiction to interfere in another country’s judicial process.

In a 21-page request filed on Friday, Saddam’s attorneys argued that because Saddam also faces a civil lawsuit in Washington, he has rights as a civil defendant that would be violated if he is executed. He has not received notice of those rights and the consequences that the lawsuit would have on his estate, his attorneys said.

“To protect those rights, defendant Saddam Hussein requests an order of this court providing a stay of his execution until further notice of this court,” attorney Nicholas Gilman wrote.A similar request by the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, was denied on Thursday as was an appeal of that decision. Al-Bandar also faces execution. The Justice Department argued in that case that US courts have no jurisdiction to interfere with the judicial process of another country.

The White House declined on Friday to talk about the timing of Saddam’s execution.

Deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel, talking to reporters on Friday from Crawford, Texas, where President George W. Bush was vacationing, said the hanging of Saddam was a matter for the sovereign Iraqi government.

Earlier, the White House said the appeals court decision to uphold the sentence marked an important milestone for the Iraqi people’s efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law.

At the Pentagon, Whitman said US military forces “stay at a constant state of high readiness in Iraq, and I would expect through this period they would do the same”.

He would not comment further on any potential troop movements to strengthen security for the execution, but he said the commanders in Iraq have the ability to move forces as they deem appropriate based on conditions on the ground.

Whitman also said he would not comment on what Bush might be contemplating in terms of changing US war policy in Iraq or in connection with the intensive administration review now under way on American strategy there.—AP