The Iraqi strongman, who shows a keen sense of his own place in time, has declared his determination to die at home and even, by implication, in the war Washington is gathering.

Branded a dictator in the West, which at first supported his military adventures when Iran's mullahs were the target, he has transformed the cradle of civilisation into an impoverised, outlaw state despite fabulous oil wealth.

Astride a personality cult to rival the most renowned rulers from Mao Zedong to Soviet-era tsars, Saddam has promoted himself in the image of the legendary ruler of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, and of Saladin.

The latter, victorious over the Crusaders in the 1187 battle for Jerusalem, was from Tikrit in northern Iraq, where Saddam was also born.

Such comparisons with a man who has dedicated his life to wielding absolute power and the military means to exercise it bolster the view held by most analysts and diplomats that Saddam, for as long as he retains all his mental faculties, will not heed offers to go into exile.

On Monday, his Foreign Minister Naji Sabri rejected a new US ultimatum for Saddam to leave the country or face war, following the acrimonious collapse of attempts to secure a new UN resolution on Iraq.

With about 300,000 US and British troops now massed around Iraq, it appeared that a war few believe he can win is now imminent.

Life has been one long battle for the poor adopted boy from a village backwater, whose ruling Baath party declared him re-elected last October with 100 percent of the vote on a 100 percent turnout.

Saddam, who also guided Iraq through the 1980-1988 bloodbath with Iran and the rout of the 1991 Gulf War, is not a quitter, diplomats note, he's a survivor.

The "great leader" has emerged from repeated ordeals by fire.

The US hyperpower and Britain unleashed four nights of hi-tech missile terror and destruction in December 1998. US missile strikes in 1996 and twice in 1993 saw Saddam emerge each time to declare another victory.

The last blitz was intended as punishment for failing to cooperate with the disarmament inspectors Iraq today professes to give every chance to check it no longer possesses weapons of mass destruction.

Washington has also often voiced hope that an internal coup might sweep aside the regime.

However Saddam knows about bloody coup bids too.

He ruthlessly suppressed uprisings in the south and north after the Gulf War and made a name trying to murder Iraqi leader Abdul Karim Kassem in 1959.

Saddam, wounded in the leg, fled abroad but returned four years later and was jailed in 1964. Within two years he escaped and resumed clandestine work for the nationalist Baath cause.

In 1968 he took part in the coup which brought the party to government, marking the start of Saddam's affair with brute power.

He was already considered the regime's real force in the shadow of then president Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr.

Party deputy secretary general Saddam Hussein, born April 28, 1937, became vice-president of the all-powerful Revolution Command Council (RCC) in 1969.

Bakr was losing his grip over the next decade as Saddam strengthened his own and the president finally retired for health reasons.

Saddam seized the crown on July 16, 1979, becoming State President, general secretary of the party and the RCC.

He brooked no dissent, extending frequent purges of senior figures to family and friends. Even potential opponents have seldom lasted long. Those who failed to find exile lie buried.

The cruelty of the state is amply documented by rights groups. Informers are encouraged, the media under strict control and few if any dare voice criticism.

Today, "he who inspires fear", but once failed to win a place for officer training, is a field marshal and commander of an army facing destruction.

But there are no signs of a white flag.

"I was born here in Iraq," he told a US television station. "We will die here. We will die in this country, and we will maintain our honour ... in front of our people."

Iraq has already begun organising the nationwide, month-long celebrations to mark his 66th birthday, if Saddam is not forcibly retired by April 28.

WAR.WIRE