"Saddam's plan to escape prison was supposed to take place in the summer of 2006, with the backing of the Iraqi resistance and a special force of bodyguards," Khalil al-Dulaimi wrote in "Saddam Hussein Out of US Prison: What Happened."

"Under the plan, the Iraqi fighters were given orders to attack Baghdad's Green Zone and the headquarters of the US Marines at the capital's airport, before raiding his jail" at Camp Cropper near the airport, according to a copy of the 480-page book obtained by AFP this week.

"He planned to flee to Anbar province in western Iraq to make a quick plan to unify Iraqi resistance groups and carry out an offensive on Baghdad," Amman-based Dulaimi, himself an Iraqi, said in the book.

Anbar, during the first years after the invasion, was a hotbed of Sunni Muslim resistance to the US-led occupation.

"Saddam also wanted to free his comrades and other prisoners detained at US military camp Cropper near Baghdad," Amman-based Dulaimi said.

Dulaimi said the plan was dropped "after a shooting incident outside (Saddam's) detention centre, which led to fortifying the facility and boosting security measures."

Six months later, Saddam was dead. He was hanged in December after being convicted of crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shiite civilians following an assassination attempt against him in 1982.

Saddam had been captured by US troops in December 2003, eight months after the fall of Baghdad, in a hole on a farm near his hometown of Tikrit.

A US military spokesman in Baghdad declined to comment on the book's release or its contents when contacted by AFP.

In the book, currently available only in Arabic and published this year in Khartoum, Saddam was quoted as telling his cell mates that "if Iraq is liberated, I would make the country flourish in seven years without the help of anybody."

"I would make Iraq better than a Swiss watch," he said.

He spoke about his American warders, "who always asked me to give them my autograph."

"I told them that after the liberation of Iraq, I would invite you to come visit my country. They were happy about this and promise to accept my invitation," he said.

"But the US soldiers refused to give me scissors to trim my beard and moustache because they were afraid I would commit suicide."

Dulaimi said Saddam took personal hygiene seriously and washed his own clothes in jail, "refusing to let anybody else do his clothes."

The blurb says it reveals "secrets" told to Dulaimi by Saddam about the fall of Baghdad, his arrest and imprisonment, and that it includes "500 letters, poems and other texts handwritten by the former president."

Dulaimi said he met Saddam two days before his execution and quoted him as saying: "I hope the Iraqi people will not forget me."

He said he did not tape his talk with Saddam, "but I made sure to write down everything he said."

Dulaimi headed Saddam's defence team before he was appointed by the deposed president's family as sole counsel in 2005.

The lawyer has been quoted as saying that he received many death threats for defending Saddam, while some reports said he has spent time in hiding since his meeting with the executed leader.

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