Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam's top lieutenant with a $10 million bounty on his head, struck a defiant tone in an intervew appearing on Time magazine's Web site in which he wrote out answers to questions sent in May through intermediaries. Time said it wasn't clear when his answers were written.

Al-Douri, the highest-ranking figure from Saddam's regime still at large and the "king of clubs" on the most wanted list, said Saddam blundered by having his army confront the U.S.-led invasion force instead of holding it in reserve to fight a guerrilla war, but he said the old army has bounced back.

"It is the Iraqi army that today is in charge of the planning and supervision of more than 95 percent of patriotic resistance operations against the occupation," al-Douri said.

It's unclear whether al-Douri, at least 62 and believed to be in poor health, still has a direct role in leading the insurgency. A year ago, the Iraqi government said he was losing influence among the pro-Saddam wing of the rebellion.

But Al-Douri said he has rebuilt the Baath party as "a revolutionary, struggle-oriented identity" and will never join the reconciliation program of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - a cornerstone of his strategy to attract elements of the insurgency and stabilize Iraq.

"The Baath Party rejects it, because it was manufactured by and serves the occupying force and is destructive of our country. The political role of the Baath in the struggle is to mobilize and bring together the energies of the people for the fight to expel the occupation and liberate our country,' he said.

He also called the trial of the former leader a farce.

"The outcome will be what America wants it to be, not that demanded by the law and the judiciary, and not that wanted by the Iraqi government of agents and spies," he said.

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