A defense lawyer for Saddam, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, condemned the decision, saying the trial was unfair.

Last month, an Iraqi court sentenced Saddam to hang for the killings of Shi'ites from the town of Dujail after an attempt there to assassinate Saddam.

The appeals court also upheld the death sentences for Saddam's half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, and a former judge, Awad al-Bandar, in the Dujail killings.

The appellate judges asked the lower court to reconsider the life sentence for former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan. The appellate court said he should be executed too.

Saddam is also on trial on charges of genocide for the 1988 Anfal campaign in which prosecutors say 180,000 Kurds were killed.

U.S. forces captured Saddam near his hometown of Tikrit in December 2003 - eight months after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted him from power.

By VOA News