BAGHDAD, Sept. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq's toppled ruler Saddam Hussein on Tuesday confessed to killings and other "crimes" committed during his regime, as Iraqi leaders failed to reach agreement on amendment to a draft constitution.

    Saddam confesses to "crimes"

    In an interview with the Iraqiya state television on Tuesday, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he had been informed by a judge that "he was able to extract confessions from Saddam's mouth" about crimes "such as executions" which Saddam had personally ordered.

    The president said the ousted leader should be hanged "20 times" for his crimes, while confirming that he will not sign a death warrant himself.

    "Saddam deserves a death sentence 20 times a day because he tried to assassinate me 20 times," said Talabani, a Kurdish rebel leader fighting the Baghdad authorities during Saddam's rule.

    Talabani added that as leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, he had once signed up his party to an international banon capital punishment.

    But he stressed that political pressure would play no part in the judges' decision, saying he will not "block the decision of the court."

    Saddam's main lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, complained after meeting his client on Monday that the Oct. 19 trial date had not been agreed through the Special Tribunal established to try Saddam and his followers.

    "Setting a date for the trial within days, weeks, months is unacceptable," the lawyer said, emphasizing that the defense team cannot come to the trial without studying the tons of documents held by the court as evidence.

    Constitution talks end without amendments

    Meanwhile, last-minute talks among Iraq's main Shiite and Sunni Muslim sects on the text of a draft constitution ended Tuesday without making amendments and a version rejected by many Sunnis will be printed starting Thursday.

    The talks have ended without any agreement among the Iraqi leaders on making changes to the draft, said a member of the parliamentary drafting committee.

    The draft "will be printed in the form it was read to the National Assembly last week" without any changes, he said, adding that 5 million copies will be printed.

    The constitution, to be voted on in a referendum by Oct. 15, has been a source of tension in Iraq as Sunnis, long the dominant political force under Saddam Hussein, fear losing influence to majority Shiites.

    The Sunni minority could veto the draft constitution at the referendum if it can muster a two-thirds majority of No votes in three of Iraq's 18 provinces.

    If two thirds of voters in three Iraqi provinces vote against the constitution, the document will be vetoed and the drafting process will start again under a new interim Assembly to be elected in December.

    Many Sunni leaders have vowed to block the constitution in its present form. Enditem