BAGHDAD: A new audio tape yesterday purporting to carry the voice of Saddam Hussein denied involvement in the bombing in Najaf that killed 125 people, including a cherished Shi'ite leader.

The message was broadcast after the US-picked Iraqi Governing Council named a new cabinet in a step towards reclaiming some powers from the American occupation administration.

Using Saddam's well-known rhetorical style, the voice urged the Iraqi people not to believe those who blamed the ousted dictator and his followers for Friday's attack on the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf.

"Many of you may have heard the snakes hissing, the servants of the invaders, occupiers, infidels, and how they have managed to accuse the followers of Saddam Hussein of responsibility for the attack on (Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir) al-Hakim without any evidence," said the tape, which was broadcast by the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite television station.

While he denied any role in the Najaf bombing, he made no mention of the Jordanian Embassy bombing on August 7 or the UN headquarters attack 12 days later, which investigators suspect may have also been committed by Saddam followers.

It was impossible to immediately authenticate the tape.

Iraq's 25-member Governing Council announced a cabinet, which mirrored exactly the council's ethnic and religious breakdown with 13 Shi'ites, five Sunni Arabs, five Kurds (also Sunnis), one ethnic Turk and an Assyrian Christian.

The new Foreign Minister will be Hoshyar Zebari who was spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Party. The key Oil Ministry will be headed by Ibrahim Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum.

(China Daily September 2, 2003)