Saddam Hussein's lawyer has pleaded to the international community to stop the United States from giving his client to Iraqi officials, in a final effort to stop the former leader's execution.

But sources have told CNN and Reuters that Saddam could be executed as early as this weekend, although an exact time remains unknown.

Lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi argued that hanging Saddam could further enflame sectarian violence, already edging towards full-blown civil war.

"If the American administration insists in handing the president to the Iraqis, it would commit a great strategic mistake which would lead to the escalation of the violence in Iraq," al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press by telephone.

The brutal former leader oppressed Kurds and Shiites to keep Iraq unified during his rule. But years after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Sunni and Shiite militias are engaged in a bitter struggle for control.

Some members of Saddam's former ruling Baath party remain active in Syria, funding Sunni fighters who have killed the most U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Saddam's execution could be carried out within a matter of days, and may further enflame tensions between the different factions.

Curtis Doebbler, another lawyer for Saddam, called his trial "unfair" and said it has already triggered bursts of violence in Iraq.

"Whenever there are hearings, violence seems to increase. And there have been, in the last few days, threats issued from different armed groups in Iraq," Curtis Doebbler, a lawyer for Hussein, told CTV Newsnet from Venice, Italy.

"I think it's a very sad day when the international community -- particularly my own country, the United States -- does something to contribute to the already very unfortunate situation in Iraq."

Saddam has urged Iraqis not to retaliate against American citizens in a final farewell letter, posted on a website Wednesday.

"I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking," he wrote in Arabic. The Associated Press translated the letter.

Hussein added: "I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us."

The letter was posted on Saddam's former Baath Party website, where another statement threatened strikes against the U.S. when the former dictator is executed.

"The Baath and the resistance are determined to retaliate, with all means and everywhere, to harm America and its interests if it commits this crime," said the statement.

Some Saddam loyalists threatened to retaliate if he is executed, warning in a posting on the same website that they would target U.S. interests.

"The Baath and the resistance are determined to retaliate, with all means and everywhere, to harm America and its interests if it commits this crime," the statement said, referring to Baath fighters as "the resistance."

The Baath Party was disbanded after U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam in 2003. The website is believed to be run from Yemen, where a number of exiled members of the party are based.

It's hard to know whether Saddam's letter could incite renewed violence, says a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

"It's hard to know. The level of violence is so profound right now that it's not likely in my view to see a specific upsurge in violence beyond maybe an incident or two that will be claimed by supporters of Saddam Hussein, at whatever point his execution might be announced," Phyllis Bennis told CTV's Canada AM.

"But I don't think that this is likely to have much of an effect on the overall question of the U.S. occupation and the resistance to it and the civil war that has been growing in Iraq anyway," Bennis said.

Should the Bush administration decide to send more troops, however, the response could be different, Bennis said.

"But if you look at what happened the last time the U.S.. tried to do that earlier this year in the summer, when 15,000 additional troops were sent to Baghdad, the level of violence in the city skyrocketed completely out of control. I don't anticipate this time it's going to be much different," she said.

At least 93 U.S. troops have died in Iraq so far this month. According to AP, 105 were killed in October.

On Thursday, three bombs killed 23 Iraqis in Baghdad and the U.S. military announced the deaths of three American soldiers.

"This has been a difficult month for coalition forces, and the month is not over yet," a military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, told the news agency.

U.S. soldiers are divided on whether the execution will increase sectarian violence and attacks against coalition forces.

Sgt. Stuart Fowler of Badger, Calif. said the execution could actually calm the chaotic situation.

"As long as he's alive, there's still some power and people still rise up," Fowler, 30, told AP.

"Once the execution goes through, I think it will be a relief for a lot of Iraqis."

Saddam is also in the middle of another trial, in which he is charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq.

That trial was adjourned until Jan. 8, but experts have said the trial of Saddam's co-defendants is likely to continue even if he is executed.

With files from The Associated Press