BAGHDAD, Aug 3: Saddam Hussein spends his days reading in an air conditioned cell or gardening in the yard of his US-guarded jail.

Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin contrasts Saddam's conditions with those detained in a US camp in scorching desert heat with only a tent for shade and those who were brutalized in the former Iraqi leader's own jails.

"What's the irony for me is that it seems those who are bigger criminals have got better treatment," Mr Amin said. He toured the US-run Camp Bucca, in southern Iraq, last month. More than 2,000 Iraqis are held at the camp, mainly for attacks against US-led forces, in an area where summer temperatures soar above 50 degrees Celsius.

In the same month, he visited Saddam Hussein and 11 of his top lieutenants in their cells in a camp near Baghdad, part of a tour to check on detention conditions in the country.

For the former president, that means receiving an army ration pack in the morning and two hot meals, alongside the odd snack. He was also allowed into the yard for three hours a day where he had been tending to plants, Mr Amin said.

"None of Saddam's prisoners had an iota of these rights," Mr Amin said, adding he found Saddam's enjoyment of gardening surprising for a man he accused of "ecocide" for, among other things, destroying Iraq's southern marshes.

Bakhtiar Amin has been working to ensure better conditions for all Iraqi detainees, and air conditioned units are now being built at Camp Bucca.

UNCOMFORTABLE VISIT: But the minister, a Kurd who campaigned in exile for Saddam to be brought to justice, said his visit to the former leader's jail was not a comfortable one.