Iraq seeks end to "Chemical Ali" execution impasse

Ali Hassan al-Majid discusses prosecution evidence during the ''Anfal'' genocide trial in Baghdad January 8, 2007.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is trying to end an impasse that has delayed the execution of Saddam Hussein's cousin and two other men convicted of genocide, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.

Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali", former Defence Minister Sultan Hashem and former army commander Hussein Rashid Muhammad are in U.S. military custody awaiting execution after they were convicted for their roles in a campaign against Iraq's Kurds in 1988.

An Iraqi court in September upheld death sentences against the three men.

Iraq's constitution stipulates that the sentences must be carried out within 30 days but they remain in custody while Iraq's leaders squabble over who has authority to sign off on the executions.

The legal dispute between the government and Iraq's presidency council has been complicated by growing calls for Hashem to be spared. Many Sunni Arabs say he was a soldier who was just following the orders of Saddam's feared cousin Majeed.

"The prime minister is trying to find a solution and a sort of balance between these demands and upholding the law and the constitution and the decisions made by the court," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told a news conference.

Dabbagh did not say what form the balance might take, or whether Maliki was considering any compromises in the dispute or a pardon for Hashem.

The U.S. military has said it will not hand the men over for execution until it receives what it calls an "authoritative government of Iraq request".

"It's dependent on a decision still to be taken by the government of Iraq," U.S. military spokesman Major-General Kevin Bergner said at the same news conference.

What constitutes such a request, and who is authorised to make it, is at the heart of the argument between Shi'ite Islamist Maliki and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Sunni Arab Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi.

Maliki has written to U.S. President George W. Bush demanding that he order the three men be handed over.

Talabani and Hashemi say Maliki has no right to make such a request and the three man-presidency council -- made up of the president and two vice-presidents -- should sign the order.

(Writing by Paul Tait; editing by Andrew Dobbie)