Nevertheless, he added: "I didn't love him or hate him."

Naor, who has appeared in Hollywood movies "Munich" and "Rendition", rejected the idea that casting an Israeli as Saddam should be seen as controversial.

"We are actors, we are artists. Why should we be Israelis, Lebanese or Egyptian?"

Although he encountered no negative feedback at home, there was a backlash against him, and more particularly his co-star Amr Waked, in Waked's native Egypt, he added.

The four-part "House of Saddam", co-funded by BBC and HBO of the United States, tells the story of Saddam's reign from 1979, when he took over the leadership, to his capture by US forces from an underground hideout at the end of 2003. Co-writer and director Alex Holmes's aim was to help viewers understand the man demonized in the west for his invasion of Kuwait, defiance of diplomacy and ruthless leadership.

"What I am hoping for is a bit of understanding, which is slightly different from sympathy," Holmes said. "People might understand him a little better and that is our aim."

Preview clips of the series, shot in Tunisia in 2007, show Hussein as a Machiavellian schemer seizing power, a loving family man, a leader who wanted what was best for Iraq but one who also struggled to trust even his closest entourage.

The general atmosphere in Saddam's intimate circles is one of paranoia caused by the Islamic Revolution in neighboring Iran and heightened by Shakespearean court intrigue inside his opulent palaces.

"I was wary of saying a Shakespearean tragic hero, but in a way it's a kind of tragedy, not only a personal one but one of Iraq and the Iraqi people," Naor explained.

"He (Saddam) was monstrous and bloody and cruel, but it's a kind of tragic hero."

(China Daily via agencies July 29, 2008)