Roula Khalaf of the Financial Times has reported that according to Giovanni di Stefano, one of Saddam Hussein's attorneys, Saddam has "resolved in recent weeks to start writing his biography."

Mr Hussein is writing about his childhood in Iraq, his early exile to Egypt and his misguided military adventures.

He will try to embarrass the great powers that once saw him as a useful buffer against the expansionist ambitions of Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution. In particular, says Mr di Stefano, he will tell how France and Britain double-crossed him by also helping Iran's Islamic republic during its eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Memo to Saddam: These guys are as beyond embarrassment as you are.