Saddam Hussein may have an unlikely saviour.

Former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark has said he will extend legal help to the deposed Iraqi leader, who has been captured by US troops, if requested by Hussein.

"I would seek to help him protect his rights if he needed my help and I felt that there was no one who's willing who could do it better," Clark said in an interview with a news agency on Friday.

"I would have no hesitation. That's my work. That's my chosen pursuit -- to protect rights. His rights need protecting."

Clark also lashed out at President George W Bush's administration for the military's handling of the ex-Iraqi president.

"My two main concerns would be about the way he's being treated from the standpoint of human rights, and my belief that the humiliation that he has suffered causes hatred and will be harmful to the interests of the United States," Clark said.

He specifically took issue with video images transmitted around the world showing a bearded and weary-looking Saddam being examined by a doctor just after his capture.