Baghdad - Saddam Hussein spent a ninth day without food on Sunday, the US military said, continuing a hunger strike to demand better protection for defence lawyers, after a third advocate was killed in Baghdad last month.
"There's no change," said Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry, a spokesman for US military detention operations in Iraq. "Despite their refusal to eat, they're still deemed to be in good health."
The 69-year-old former president, whose trial for crimes against humanity resumes in a week, has been drinking sweet coffee and other liquid nourishment since eating his last meal on the evening of July 7, the military says.
It has not identified three other hunger strikers among Saddam's co-defendants. Three senior Baath party followers are on trial with Saddam, along with four minor party officials.
For the third time since the trial began in October a defence lawyer was killed in Baghdad last month. The four defendants want better security for their counsel and are also demanding a change in trial procedures.
Saddam and others held at a high-security facility near Baghdad airport have staged hunger strikes before but the former Iraqi leader has not been known to have fasted as long.