A team of 11 lawyers drawn from different countries would defend the captured Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during his trial, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party chairman Bhim Singh said on Saturday.

"We are in the process of constituting Saddam's International Defence Committee comprising prominent lawyers from Russia, Egypt, Syria, India and some western countries to defend the ousted leader," Singh who is also a lawyer said.

A meeting of these lawyers is likely to take place in the first week of January in New Delhi to work out the strategy, he said. "We will also contact the United Nations seeking its cooperation to take up Saddam's case."

On President Pervez Musharraf's statement that Pakistan was prepared to drop its demand for UN-sponsered plebiscite in Kashmir, the JKNPP leader said Islamabad has all along violated the UN resolutions by illegally occupying a portion of Kashmir and also handing over part of it to China.

He said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee should properly weigh the pros and cons of the statement of Pakistani president before reacting or initiating any step.