AP:US will allow the Red Cross to visit Saddam...

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?We hope to see him as soon as possible,? ICRC spokesman saysThe Associated Press

Updated: 8:45 a.m. ET Feb. 14, 2004GENEVA -

U.S. authorities have given the international Red Cross permission to see Saddam Hussein, but no date has been set, the organization said Saturday.

The ICRC requested permission to visit Saddam soon after he was captured Dec. 13 and the United States declared him a prisoner of war.

?We have had a green light for a visit,? Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a newspaper interview. ?However, we don?t yet know when it will take place.?

Kellenberger?s comments were published Saturday in the daily Tribune de Geneve.

ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal confirmed Kellenberger?s comments, but told The Associated Press he could not say when U.S. authorities had given the organization permission to see the toppled Iraqi leader.

?We hope to see him as soon as possible,? Westphal said.

Comment was not immediately available from U.S. officials.

The neutral, Swiss-run organization is entitled to see POWs under the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war, although the accords do not set a timetable for visits.