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Iraqi leader's Koran 'written in blood'

Iraqi TV and newspapers reported that the Iraqi leader had the volume produced in thanks to God for bringing him safely through many "conspiracies and dangers" in his long political career.

"My life has been full of dangers in which I should have lost a lot of blood...but since I have bled only a little, I asked somebody to write God's words with my blood in gratitude," President Saddam Hussein said in a letter published in the official media.

The special-edition volume was handed over at a ceremony at the weekend.

Three years in the writing

The Iraqi leader commissioned the work three years ago on his 60th birthday.

Press and TV reports gave no indication of how much blood he had provided for the team of calligraphers who produced the work.

But a senior Iraqi official suggested the amount was considerable, given that the Muslim holy book comprises over 6,000 verses and some 336,000 words.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.