Operation Anfal, or "Spoils of War", targeted Kurdish independence militias. Saddam Hussein believed they were helping his enemy Iran.

Survivors say they were targeted with gas, although this new trial does not deal with the Halabja attack in 1988, where 5,000 Kurds are thought to have been gassed to death.

A separate tribunal is dealing with that case.

Rights concerns

The anti-Kurdish operation earned Saddam Hussein's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, his nickname. Both face genocide charges.

All the defendants face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity and face the death penalty if convicted.

The defence is expected to portray the campaign as a legitimate counter-insurgency against Kurdish militias who were accused of helping Iran in the war.

The prosecution will argue that it amounted to genocide.

The evidence is expected to include government documents and testimony of survivors.

Abdullah al-Amiri, a Shia, will be the chief judge of a five-member panel in the same courthouse in the Green Zone in Baghdad that saw the Dujail trial.

Human rights activists have questioned the fairness of the Iraqi judicial system and said there were "serious shortcomings" in the Dujail case.

Three defence lawyers were assassinated and the original chief judge replaced.

Prosecutors want the death penalty for Saddam Hussein and two of the seven other defendants in the Dujail case. All denied the charges.

The case reconvenes on 16 October. If Saddam Hussein is convicted and given the death penalty he may still appeal, raising the possibility that any execution could be delayed by years.