The French lawyer chosen to represent Saddam Hussein says he will put the US on trial.

PARIS (Reuters) - The French lawyer known for defending Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and guerrilla Carlos the Jackal said Saturday that Saddam Hussein’s nephew had chosen him to represent the deposed Iraqi president.

Jacques Verges told Reuters in a telephone interview he had received a letter from Ali Barzan al-Tikriti, whose father Barzan al-Tikriti is Saddam’s half-brother, asking him to defend the former Iraqi dictator, captured by U.S. forces in December.

The U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council in Baghdad is setting up a war crimes tribunal to try Saddam on charges which may include genocide and crimes against humanity.

Washington has said the 66-year-old Saddam, whose interrogation is being led by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), should be tried in Iraq.

Verges, who is also defending former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, said he had accepted the job of defending Saddam and suggested his strategy would focus on the role played by the United States and other countries in supporting the Iraqi leader in the 1980s.

“We know very well that the Anglo-Americans armed Saddam Hussein, that the chemical weapons were sold by the allies,” Verges said in a telephone interview.