BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein and seven senior members of his 23-year regime go on trial Wednesday to face charges they ordered the 1982 killings of nearly 150 people from the mainly Shiite town of Dujail following a failed attempt on Saddam's life.

Court officials have said they are trying Saddam on the Dujail massacre first because it was the easiest and quickest case to put together. Other cases they are investigating - including a crackdown on the Kurds that killed an estimated 180,000 people - involve much larger numbers of victims, more witnesses and more documentation.

If convicted, Saddam and his co-defendants could face the death penalty, but they could appeal before another chamber of the Iraqi Special tribunal.

Saddam and his co-defendants are expected to hear the charges against them during Wednesday's hearing, and the court will address procedural matters. The trial is then expected to be adjourned for several weeks.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari complained Monday that the Iraqi court took an unjustifiably long time to prepare its case and brushed aside concerns that the court could be biased against the former dictator.

"I don't think there are any more clear-cut crimes in the world than those committed by Saddam," said the Shiite Muslim leader, five of whose close relatives, including an older brother, were executed by Saddam's regime in the 1980s and 1990s.

He underlined, however, that the deaths in his family did not mean that he would get a sense of personal satisfaction if the former dictator is eventually executed.

"I try to forget what happened to my brother and my cousins. It is never an issue of revenge or personal malice," al-Jaafari said during a 2½-hour meeting with journalists over "iftar," the sunset meal Muslims eat to break their fast during the month of Ramadan.

Al-Jaafari's Shiite Dawa Party was blamed by the toppled regime for the attempt on Saddam's life in Dujail, a Dawa stronghold. Of the estimated 17 party members who opened fire on Saddam's motorcade, eight were killed in a shootout with troops from Saddam's elite Republican Guard. Nine others escaped and fled to Iran.

Al-Jaafari, who took office in April as the head of a Shiite-Kurdish coalition, said he wanted Saddam to have a fair and open trial, but made it clear that he preferred the proceedings not drag on.

Saddam's regime was toppled in April 2003, but the former dictator was on the run for eight months before U.S. troops captured him near his hometown of Tikrit. He has since been kept in a U.S.-run facility thought to be at or near Baghdad International Airport.

"Saddam is gone and we are moving ahead while he is part of the past," Al-Jaafari said during a meal with journalists. "His case doesn't belong to just one nation, but the whole world. Iraqis would like to see justice done."