Related Event: Iraq in Transition

Iraqi prime minister's spokesman Laith Kuba made the announcement on Sunday.

He said prosecuting Saddam on all 500 charges would be a waste of time.

Kuba also said Saddam's trial was likely to begin within the next two months on the charges, which include alleged crimes committed in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"There should be no objection to a trial taking place within that time. It is the government's view that the trial of Saddam should take place as soon as possible."

No exact date has been set for the trial of Saddam, who has been held in a US-run detention facility in Baghdad since being captured in December 2003.

The spokesman said the judges are confident that Saddam and his co-defendants from the ousted regime will be convicted all of the 12 charges.

Saddam has been accused of ordering the killing of tens of thousands of Shiites and Kurds who rose up against him in 1991 following the Gulf War.

He was arraigned July 1 in Baghdad on broad charges including killing rival politicians over 30 years, gassing Kurds in the northern town of Halabja in 1988, invading Kuwait in 1990 and suppressing the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings.