Iraq has ordered the seizure of assets that belonged to executed dictator Saddam Hussein and more than 4,200 officials from his former regime, an official statement said Monday.

The list of ex-regime bosses was drawn up by the Iraqi agency charged with tracking down former officials from Saddam's Baath Party, and includes their relatives.

Saddam's name appeared at the top of the list and it also said it included "his children, grandchildren, relatives".

After the fall of the Saddam regime following the 2003 US invasion, property belonging to the former ruler and his cronies was snaffled up by Iraq's new leaders, armed forces and multiple militias.

This new order now seeks to put an official stamp on the confiscation of the assets.

The list of names includes Saddam-era government ministers, security bosses and officials from the Baath Party, including some who are in prison, who have been executed or have died.

Among those named is Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam better known as "Chemical Ali", who was hanged in 2010 for ordering the 1988 gassing of thousands of Kurds.

Tareq Aziz, a veteran foreign minister who held the post of deputy prime minister before Saddam was ousted in the US-led invasion, is also on the list.

Sentenced to death in 2013, Aziz, the only Christian in Saddam's inner circle, died two years later in prison.

His son Ziad, who lives in Jordan, has condemned the list as nothing more than "a stunt to win votes" in Iraq's May 12 legislative election.

"We've been subjected to pressure and injustice for 15 years, it's enough," he told AFP ahead of the official announcement Sunday."When will the spite of this so-called government end?"

Ziad Aziz denied his family had any assets, saying his father's house in Baghdad had already been seized by prominent Shiite politician Ammar al-Hakim.

NATO chief says alliance troops staying in Iraq
Baghdad (AFP) March 5, 2018 - NATO forces are staying in Iraq at the country's request, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said during a rare visit Monday to Baghdad after parliament called for a foreign troop pullout.

"We are here because Iraq wants us to be here, we are not here without the consent and without an invitation from Iraq," Stoltenberg told AFP.

"We should not stay longer than necessary, we will train the trainers as long as necessary to make sure IS does not reemerge," he said of the jihadist Islamic State group.

His comments come days after the Iraqi parliament called for the government to draw up a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.

"The Iraqi parliament expresses its gratitude to all countries which have supported Iraq in its fight against Daesh (IS) and calls for the government to draw up a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops," it said in a statement.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared in December the end of the war to expel IS jihadists from the country, three years after they seized a third of Iraq, sweeping aside security forces.

Stoltenberg said NATO received a "written request" from Abadi to keep its troops in the country.

He said troops from 19 member countries have stepped up training Iraqi forces in several fields.

NATO "is scaling up its training, like countering IEDs (improvised explosive devices), military medicine, maintenance of equipment and in some other areas", he said.

"We are also planning to help Iraqis to establish military schools and academies to educate their trainers to improve its capacity to form its own trainers," Stoltenberg said.

In addition, NATO will work with Iraq "on institutional reform, including fighting corruption", he added.

He also praised the "enormous transformation" of Iraqi forces since 2014, when IS launched its lightening offensive and seized swathes of territory.

"The Iraqi forces in 2014 are totally different from the Iraqi forces in 2018, there was an enormous transformation," the NATO chief said.

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