Confusion prevailed on Friday night over the fate of deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein with conflicting reports coming in on whether he would be executed within the next few hours.

Reports said the former Iraqi dictator had been handed over to Iraqi authorities for execution and his lawyers had been asked to collect his personal belongings.

An Iraqi television channel quoted a judge as saying that Saddam would be executed on Saturday.

Reports from Baghdad, quoting officials, however, denied that Saddam would be hanged on Saturday, but his lawyers said he was being readied for execution and had been handed over to the Iraqi authorities.

Saddam was sentenced to death on November 5 for ordering the massacre of 148 people in 1982 who, he thought, had engineered an assassination attempt on him.

The death sentence was confirmed by an Iraqi Apellate Court on December 26.

After the Apellate Court judgment, Saddam could have applied to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani for clemency, which he is unlikely to do as he does not recognise the new Iraqi regime.

India had expressed hope that Saddam's life would be spared, and that no steps were taken which would delay peace in the embattled country.

The external afairs ministry, in a statement after the Apellate Court judgment, expressed the hope that the sentence would not be carried out, and no steps taken which might obstruct the reconciliation process and delay the restoration of peace in Iraq.

"We have seen reports that the Appeals Court in Baghdad has confirmed the death sentence on former president Saddam Hussein of Iraq. It is our hope that the sentence will not be carried out and that the former president's life would be spared. We would also hope that no steps are taken which might obstruct the process of reconciliation and delay the restoration of peace in Iraq," the statement issued by the external affairs ministry said.