Iraqi former leader Saddam Hussein has been hospitalized due to a days-long hunger-strike, a prosecutor said on Sunday.

Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi told reporters that Saddam had been taken to hospital on Sunday due to his hunger-strike and that he was currently fed by a tube.

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein speaks at his trial in Baghdad in this March 1, 2006 file photograph. Saddam is well enough to return to court on Monday after 16 days on hunger strike, a U.S. military spokesman said on July 23, 2006 in response to a report that the former Iraqi president had been taken to hospital. [Reuter]

Moussawi also said that the former Iraqi president, who is on trial for charges against humanity, might not be able to attend the court session scheduled for Monday.

No further details were revealed.

Saddam, along with three of his seven co-accused including his half brother and once Iraqi intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan and head of Saddam's former revolutionary court Awad al-Bandar, has started a hunger strike since July 7.

The move came in a protest against the Iraqi High Tribunal's procedures and security measures for the defense lawyers as three of them have been slain since the trial of Saddam and his aides was launched last October.

The latest victim on the defense team was Saddam's deputy defense lawyer Khamis al-Obaidi, who was kidnapped and killed in Baghdad last month.

The defense team has blamed Shiite militiamen for Obaidi's death, demanding the Iraqi High Tribunal provide better security. But the court rejected the demands.

Saddam and his seven aides are facing charges against humanity including the killing of 148 Shiites in the northern village of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam's life there in 1982.

The defense team has begun giving closing statements on behalf of the defendants.