Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman ordered bailiffs at the Iraqi High Tribunal to force Saddam to stand as, visibly trembling and holding a copy of the Koran, the former strongman attempted to shout down the verdict.

 "Make him stand," barked Abdel Rahman, as Saddam begged the guards: "Don't bend my arms. Don't bend my arms."

 Nevertheless, a court official held Saddam's hands behind his back as Abdel Rahman, shouting to be heard over the defendant's barracking, declared: "The highest penalty should be implemented."

 Saddam was sentenced to death for "willful killing", part of his indictment for crimes against humanity, for his role in ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite villagers in the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad.

 As he was led away, his arms still pinioned, he declared: "Long live Iraq. Long live the Iraqi people. God is greater than the occupier."

 Saddam's half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti was also sentenced to death, as was Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, who was chairman of the "revolutionary court" that ordered the Shiites executed.

 The former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan received a life sentence, while three Baath party officials from Dujail received 15 years each and a fourth, more junior figure, was cleared.

 The tribunal's spokesman and chief investigative judge, Raed al-Juhi, said Saddam's appeal would begin on Monday and last for a month, but that no date had been set for its final decision.

 "The appeal against this sentence will start from tomorrow and last for 30 days. The court of appeal has set no timetable to issue its decision," he told reporters at the courthouse after the verdict.

 If the appeals court, a nine-member panel of judges, upholds Abdel Rahman's verdict, then Saddam will be hanged within 30 days of its decision.

 Sadr City, the main Shiite suburb of eastern Baghdad, erupted in joy at the verdict, as around 1,000 people marched, waved flags, denounced Saddam and hailed their hero, radical preacher Moqtada al-Sadr.

 "Deliver him to us, we'll execute him ourselves," shouted the crowd.

 The rest of the city was locked down by a strict curfew as security forces feared an angry reaction from Saddam's remaining supporters among Iraq's Sunni minority, who were favoured under his 24-year reign.

 Iraq's beleaguered military was on a war footing for the verdict and a curfew was in force in three flashpoint provinces -- the war-torn capital, the sectarian battlefields of Diyala and Saddam's home region of Salaheddin.

 Meanwhile, north of Baghdad in the Sunni town of Dawr near Saddam's home  town of Tikrit, scores of protesters gathered to support the deposed president, according to a spokesman for the local security coordination centre.

 "They chanted 'With our blood, with our souls we redeem you Saddam'," said police spokesman Hamed el-Duri.

 In Tikrit, Sheikh Al-Nadawi, the head of the Baigat group of tribes to which Saddam belongs, said: "Saddam lived a hero and will die as a hero. The court was set up by his rivals... It is a historical farce."

 The defendants were convicted of ordering the village of Dujail to suffer savage collective punishment after agents of current Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa party tried to kill Saddam there in 1982.

 The community's orchards were ripped up and 148 Shiite civilians were dragged before a Baath party kangaroo court and sentenced to death.

 The Dujail incident still carries a potent political charge more than three and a half years after Saddam was driven from power by a US-led invasion, amid ongoing sectarian bloodshed and effective occupation by US forces.

 Iraq's Shiite majority seized upon the fall of the Sunni dictator and the old elite to seize power and seek vengeance for crimes such as the destruction of Dujail, while the country has slipped into sectarian war.

 Many Sunni insurgents fighting the US-backed regime remain loyal to Saddam.

 Such armed groups -- including the Islamic Army of Iraq, which is made up of former Baath Party cadres and veterans of Saddam's armed forces -- have been at the forefront of attacks on US and government forces.

 Whether they have reserves of fury yet to unleash may become evident in the aftermath of the verdict.

Agence France-Presse