Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein could be executed as early as this weekend, according to some reports.

Iraq's highest court on Tuesday rejected Saddam's appeal against his conviction and death sentence for the killing of 148 Shia Muslims in the northern city of Dujail in 1982.

An Iraqi street vendor in Baghdad shows old Iraqi banknotes that picture Saddam Hussein. The ousted president could be hanged as soon as this weekend, according to reports.
(Khalid Mohammed/Associated Press)

The court said Saddam, who was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 after 24 years in power, should be hanged within 30 days.

NBC News reported Thursday that, according to a U.S. military officer, Saddam will be hanged before the start of the Eid religious holiday, which begins Sunday.

The U.S. military received a formal request from the Iraqi government, NBC reported, to transfer Saddam to Iraqi authorities, which is one of the final steps required before his execution.

CNN also reported that, according to officials in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, Saddam is expected to be executed "this weekend."

It's up to Iraq: official

But U.S. Homeland Security adviser Fran Townsend told CNN that the timing of the execution is up to the Iraqi government.

The White House was preparing for Saddam's execution as early as this weekend, based on information that U.S. officials in Baghdad were receiving from the Iraqi government, a senior administration official said in Washington.

But Iraq's deputy justice minister, Bosho Ibrahim, said Saddam shouldn't be hanged for another few weeks.

"The law does not say within 30 days, it says after the lapse of 30 days," Ibrahim said.

Some U.S. officials and Iraqis have expressed concern about the potential for even worse bloodshed between the country's Shia Muslim majority and the Sunni Muslim minority following Saddam's execution.

Saddam's lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said transferring Saddam to Iraqi authorities could be the trigger.

"If the American administration insists in handing the president to the Iraqis, it would commit a great strategic mistake which would lead to the escalation of the violence in Iraq and the eruption of a destructive civil war," al-Dulaimi told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Under Saddam, a Sunni Muslim, the government was dominated by Sunnis even though it put in place a number of secular policies. However, Shia politicians won the majority of seats in the parliamentary election of December 2005.

With files from the Associated Press