Iraq has not set an execution date for two of Saddam Hussein's aides, an official said yesterday, as the government faced anger from Sunnis over Saddam's unruly hanging.

There had been reports that Saddam's half-brother, former intelligence boss Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander, would hang yesterday. But an aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said no date had been set.

Barzan and Bander were found guilty along with Saddam of crimes against humanity in the killings of 148 Shi'ite men from Dujail in the 1980s.

Bahaa al-Araji, a lawmaker for radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political group, said he believed the executions would be delayed until Sunday, the first working day after the weekend and the Eid al-Adha holiday.

As far as I know, the executions will take place on Sunday, if things stand as they are," al-Araji said. "I'm not sure about what time, but I doubt it will be in the same place."

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour urged Iraq on Wednesday not to execute the two men out of respect for international law and concerns over the fairness and impartiality of the trial.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokeswoman said he fully endorsed Arbour's statement.

Maliki had brushed aside a similar appeal from Arbour before Saddam was executed, and shocked many in Iraq and the rest of the Muslim world by having him hanged on the first day of Eid.

Guards arrested for video

Facing growing criticism over a video of Shi'ite officials mocking Saddam on the gallows, which has hardened perceptions of Shi'ite triumphalism among Sunni Arabs and discomfited the United States, officials said a number of guards had been detained as part of a government probe into who filmed and leaked the video.

The images, which show observers yelling "Go to hell" and chanting the name of a radical Shi'ite cleric before Saddam falls through the trap, has inflamed sectarian passions in a country on the brink of sectarian civil war.

Thousands of Sunni Arabs have marched to vent anger at the execution, and mourners have flocked to his grave in his home village of Awja.

Although the Interior Ministry's investigation has so far centred on the guards, it could implicate senior government officials present at the execution, dealing a further blow to Maliki's calls for national reconciliation.

The US military, which said it played no role in the hanging and would have done things "differently," urged Maliki in unusually direct advice to reach out to disillusioned Sunnis.

US Major General William Caldwell said on Wednesday there had been a lull in violence over the Eid al-Adha holiday, but that US forces were still braced for a possible backlash.

Hostages appear in video

Four Americans and an Austrian abducted in November in southern Iraq spoke briefly and appeared uninjured in a video believed to have been recorded nearly two weeks ago and delivered on Wednesday to The Associated Press.

The men security contractors for the Crescent Security Group based in Kuwait appeared separately on the edited video. Three of them said they were being treated well. They were kidnapped November 16 when suspected militiamen in Iraqi police uniforms ambushed a convoy of trucks being escorted by Crescent Security on a highway near the southern border city of Safwan.

"My name is John R. Young," one captive in a blue and white sweat suit said in the video. "I'm 44 years old. I'm from Kansas City, Missouri. The date is December 21, 2006. I'm well, my friends are well, we've been treated well."

The captives were dressed in civilian clothes and spoke in a flat, impassive tone. Several had their hands folded in their laps.

US Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said the embassy was working with US-led forces and the Iraqi Government in an effort to ensure their safe return.

Source: China Daily