SADDAM GIVES NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW

IRAQI tyrant Saddam Hussein has made a series of astonishing claims � giving a glimpse of his state of mind.

The once-feared despot broke his silence in an interview with The Sun from his cell.

In it he ranted how he:

HOPED to flee by motorbike just minutes before he was nabbed by US combat forces.

PRAISES cowardly French President Jacques Chirac as his �longtime friend�.

BRANDED our sensational scoop pictures of him in his pants an insult to Iraqi people.

Speaking through his lawyer, Saddam told how his escape plan was botched and claims he was gassed by American troops.

He revealed: �I came out of the house where I was hiding by this hole. I went through the trap door. I went down the hole, through the tunnel then lost consciousness.�

Saddam hoped to emerge unnoticed in nearby bushes � before staging a Steve McQueen-type great escape riding a motorcycle.

But he added: �I believe I was betrayed. I have been set up.�

His lawyer Ramsey Clark, 78, a former US Attorney General, revealed: �Saddam thinks he was gassed in the tunnel.

�He tried to get to the exit of the tunnel. But he did not have time to get away. He told us he spent maybe minutes in this tunnel � not hours or days.

�When he started to get out there were soldiers around that area. There was supposed to be a motorcycle there. It was gone.

�Saddam knew the person who owned the house wasn�t there. He knew he had been betrayed.�

In fact deluded Saddam�s hiding place was a dirty rathole that led nowhere.

The revelations shed new light on the astonishing operation which led to Saddam�s capture on a farm near al-Dawr, near Tikrit in December 2003.

The cowering despot was nabbed underground with two AK47s and �420,000 by the US 4th Infantry Division�s 1st Brigade Combat Team who acted on a tip-off.