Thousands of Shia Muslims have hit the streets of four Iraqi cities, calling on the United States to hand over Saddam Hussein to be tried as a war criminal and demanding a bigger say in their political future.
The fresh rallies followed a march through Baghdad on Monday by tens of thousands of people from the majority Shia community demanding direct elections to decide who controls Iraq when the United States hands back power in June.
In the southern city of Basra, several thousand protesters demanded Saddam be executed. "We want Saddam dead or alive. We demand Saddam's execution," they chanted.
In Baghdad and the Shia holy cities of Kerbala and Najaf, similar numbers demanded Saddam be declared a war criminal and handed over for trial soon.
The United States declared Saddam a prisoner of war on January 9th following his capture the previous month. Washington has said he will eventually be handed over to Iraqi authorities to be tried under a special tribunal.
In New York, diplomats said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was expected to decide within a week whether to send a political team to Iraq to tackle the Shi'ite calls for polls.
Washington, which went to war in Iraq without the backing of most of the U.N. Security Council and for months opposed a wider UN role in Iraq, now wants the world body to help by convincing Iraqis elections cannot be held yet.