A bipartisan delegation of US senators paid a surprise visit to Baghdad on Saturday to discuss the June 30 handover of power with top US and Iraqi officials, a spokesman said.
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Democrat Joseph Biden of Delaware and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina travelled to Baghdad and Kuwait in a show of support to US soldiers in the region.
"It is a rescheduled trip to show bipartisan support for the soldiers and to meet with (US-led Coalition Provisional Authority) and Iraqi officials before the handover," said Todd Webster, spokesman for Daschle. The trip was originally planned for April.
SADDAM'S CUSTODY PLEDGED: US senators said Saturday that Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi had told them that Baghdad would not try to take custody of former dictator Saddam Hussein before the country was properly ready to try him.
Senator Joe Biden, a Democrat from Delaware, discussed the issue with Allawi in Baghdad along with US fellow Democrat and Senate minority leader Tom Daschle and Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina.
"Saddam and others should be tried by an Iraqi court, by an Iraqi government in front of the Iraqi people," said Biden in response to a reporter's question about whether a plan for Saddam and other high-level detainees was discussed.
"I can relay confidence that they (the Iraqis) are not going to attempt to gain custody and try him before they are fully ready, before they are ready to put on a case, before they are fully prepared to be able to demonstrate to their people that this is fair trail and demonstrate to the region and the world," Biden said.