BAGHDAD, April 27: International Red Cross officials visited Saddam Hussein at a secret prison in Iraq on Tuesday, the eve of his 67th birthday, officials said.

It was the second such visit since the former president was captured by US troops in December and a stark contrast to the nation wide festivities ordered on April 28 in previous years during Saddam's rule, when his birthday was a public holiday.

"Today a visit between Saddam Hussein and authorized members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) occurred at an undisclosed location," Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt, a US military spokesman, said at a news conference in Baghdad.

The ICRC office in Geneva confirmed the visit had taken place and that Saddam Hussein was still in Iraq, contrary to occasional speculation. "It was the second visit. I don't know yet whether he passed any message to his family as he did the first time," ICRC spokesman Ian Piper said.

"It was in Iraq, but we never say where." Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay feared henchman to their father, were killed in a battle in July. He wrote in February to two daughters now living in Jordan. The whereabouts of his two wives, a third adult daughter and a teenage son are not clear.

US officials, who permitted the first Red Cross visit by a doctor and interpreter on Feb 21, decline all comment on Saddam Hussein's whereabouts or conditions of confinement.

He is being held as a prisoner of war, with rights to visits and correspondence under the Geneva Convention. Iraqi prosecutors are preparing a case against Saddam for genocide during his three-decade rule.

The ICRC's Piper said all prisoners of war were entitled to be interviewed privately and to send a message to family. "From our point of view this is routine. We are pleased but it is nothing exceptional. He is far from the only prisoner," he said. "We visit all prisoners as often as we can."

The ICRC had planned for the same team to visit Saddam this week as saw him two months ago, Mr Piper said, but he could not yet confirm whether those people had indeed paid the visit. -Reuters