THE family of Saddam Hussein demanded yesterday that the former dictator face an international rather than Iraqi court as coalition troops remained under attack in the troubled country.

Two US soldiers were wounded in an explosion in Tikrit, the place where Saddam was born and close to where he was finally captured in a dramatic raid at the weekend.

About 700 anti-American protesters had gathered in the town chanting: ''Saddam is in our hearts, Saddam is in our blood.''

As the attacks continued, Saddam's daughter Raghad claimed her father had been sedated during his capture.

''Saddam was tranquillised when captured,'' she said in an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television station. ''He would be a lion even when caged.

''Every honest person who knows Saddam know that he is firm and powerful.''

Raghad - who, along with her sister Rana, has sought asylum in Jordan - said the family wanted her father to be tried by an international court rather than a special tribunal which was set up by the Iraqi Governing Council last week.

The 66-year-old former dictator faces a raft of war crime charges dating back to the 1960s as well as crimes against humanity.

Raghad said: ''We demand a fair and legal trial, not one held by the Governing Council which was appointed by the occupier.

''It should be fair and international. We should have the right to defend our father legally.''

The debate over the fate of the ''broken'' Iraqi despot continued as President George Bush said Saddam would be put on trial in a manner to be determined in conjunction with Iraqis.

Asked if the death penalty could be considered, Iraq's Governing Council leader Abdelaziz al-Hakim said: ''Yes. Absolutely.'' Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for the council, insisted Saddam would get a fair trial.

He told BBC Breakfast: ''Politicians in Iraq and the Iraqi people want to see this trial as an unprecedented thing in the Middle East - as a new face for a new Iraq, a new democratic Iraq where leaders will be accountable.

''It will also send the right message to have a trial conducted in Iraq by Iraqis to heal the wounds of those victims or the families of the victims.''

But human rights groups say Iraq lacks judges, lawyers and institutions to conduct fair trials without help.

Charges against Saddam could focus on the campaign against Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s, the use of chemical weapons on Iranian troops and Kurdish civilians, the suppression of the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991, the punishment of the Marsh Arabs and the forced expulsions of ethnic minorities in the north.

French lawyer Jacques Verges, known for his notorious clients has said he would be ready to defend the deposed dictator.