President Saddam Hussein has opened his palaces to the Iraqi people to take the "iftar" meal which breaks the daily dawn-to-dusk fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Iraqi TV has shown hundreds of men, women and children, some of them carrying portraits of Saddam and Iraq's flag, streaming into the "people's palaces" on a nightly basis.
"The gatherings are a sign of their support for President Saddam Hussein," said Ahmad Hussein Khodeir, head of the president's office, quoted in Baghdad newspapers on Monday.
Such iftars were also organized last year for Ramadan, after Iraqis had gathered at the palaces to serve as "human shields" against US and British air strikes in December 1998 -- BAGHDAD (AFP)
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