The US Department of Justice sent a 50-member team to Iraq on the weekend to assemble war crimes evidence against ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and other members of his former regime, a senior government official said Saturday.  

The group, consisting of prosecutors, investigators and lawyers, would search through thousands of pages of documents for evidence for war crimes, to be used against Saddam and others whey they are brought to trial before war crimes tribunals.

The Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the team, called the Regime Crimes Adviser's Office, would report to the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Investigators from other countries such as Britain, Spain and Poland would provide assistance in the investigation, the official said.

The Iraqi Governing Council has set up tribunals, but the timetable for a trial of Saddam is not known. Saddam, 66, was ousted in April last year during the US-led invasion of Iraq and was captured in central Iraq in December.

The Justice Department was authorized earlier this year by the White House, through the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to take the lead in developing the case against the former Iraqi leader, a White House official said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2004)