SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq, Aug 30 (AFP) - 12h02 - The chief judge trying ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has arrived in northern Iraq's Kurdish-controlled zone to gather criminal evidence against the former dictator, a Kurdish official said Tuesday.The visit by Judge Raed al-Juhi to Sulaimaniyah is to gather documents and evidence that could be useful in the trial of Saddam Hussein, the official said.

He said that four judges in an Iraqi Special Tribunal court in Sulaimaniyah, 330 kilometers (205 miles) north of Baghdad, had been listening to claims against Saddam.

"These are victims or families of victims, who were affected during the Anfal operations in which 182,000 were killed in several Kurdistan provinces, or those who were subjected to chemical warfare in Halabja in 1988," the official said.

He said Juhi will head afterwards to Arbil, the declared capital of the Kurdish region, which has enjoyed de facto autonomy since 1991.

Saddam, who was ousted in April 2003 after the US-led invasion of Iraq and captured the following December, is in US custody near Baghdad awaiting trial on charges of crimes against humanity.

No trial date has yet been set, although Iraqi government officials have said it could take place within the next two months.

Last month, the court filed the first charges against Saddam over the 1982 killing of 143 residents of the village of Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, where he had been the target of a failed assassination bid.