Al Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, and ousted Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, have been nominated for the title of the 'Greatest Arab' of all time in a Middle Eastern variant of the BBC's Great Britons series.

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An Arabic television channel began accepting nominations last week, after buying the format for the popular programme
from the BBC. Thousands have already logged on to the website for the series or sent text messages to vote for their preferred candidate.

According to a report in The Sunday Telegraph, both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have already received votes.

Other nominations include Saladin, famous for having recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders; Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader; King Abdul Aziz al Saud, the creator of modern Saudi Arabia; and Omar Sharif.

The late King Hussein of Jordan; Naguib Mahfouz, the Egyptian novelist; and Anwar Sadat, the former Egyptian
president have also been nominated.

A number of women have also received support, including the Lebanese singer Fairouz and the late Um Kalthoum, the
Egyptian singer.

A list of the 100 most popular figures will be announced early next year. Programmes on the top 10 will be broadcast, allowing a further round of voting, after which the winner will be chosen.

Producers at MBC, which claims to have an estimated 130 million Arab viewers worldwide, said there was no intention to exclude controversial figures, but admitted that it might prove embarrassing if bin Laden or Saddam gained a large number of votes.

Ramzi Rassi, the executive producer of the programme, said: "Our main incentive is to allow all the Arab people to express their views. If controversial figures prove very popular, they will be considered by the steering committee, which may decide to disqualify them. The mainstream opinion will rule," he added.

One of the problems facing the show is how to determine who is an Arab. The Arab world is vast, including many
different groups and cultures and people of different faiths and ethnicity.