Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin

The chief judge trying the toppled president Saddam Hussein has tendered his resignation letter to the Iraqi high tribunal over political pressure, a source close to the judge said on Sunday.

Senior officials of the tribunal met the Kurdish judge Rizgar Muhammed Amin in Sulaimaniyah to convince him to withdraw his decision, the source who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

He said Amin prefers to leave the job after Shiite politicians criticized him for being lenient with Saddam and his codefendants. "He is under pressure. The court also is under pressure," he said.

The Iraqi high tribunal was not available for comments on the news from Sulaimaniyah.

Amin, 48, was born in Sulaimaniyah, some 330 km north of Baghdad. He is among the five-judge panel which prosecutes Saddam and his seven aides over ordering the massacre of more than 140 Shiites in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, following a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam, the then Iraqi leader.

The departure of Amin will not present a major obstacle to Saddam's trial, but his complaints about the government interference will affect the credibility of the trial.