The cards will be given to US and British soldiers serving in Iraq while posters and handbills of the 52 will be distributed across the country as the hunt for the Iraqi regime is stepped up.

Saddam, who has been missing since losing his high-stakes game of geopolitical poker with President George W. Bush, gets pride of place on the playing cards as the ace of spades is traditionally the most powerful card.

His notorious sons Qusay, head of the Saddam Fedayeen militia, and Uday, commander of the feared security and intelligence apparatus, are the ace of clubs and hearts respectively.

Other prominent members of the regime, who are also believed dead or on the run, also get their place in the game.

Tareq Aziz, the deputy prime minister and longstanding spokesman to the rest of the world, is the eight of spades. Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan is the ten of diamonds. Ezzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of the Revolution Command Council, is the king of clubs.

The only woman on the list is Huda Salih Mahdi, a top weapons scientist, who is given the five of hearts.

Barzan al-Takriti, a former intelligence chief and Saddam half-brother thought to have died Friday in a US bombing, is the five of clubs.

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks showed the cards at a briefing at the war command headquarters in Qatar and said the Iraqi leaders named could be "pursued, killed or captured".

Brooks said some of those on the list were probably already dead, and that top commanders hoped the photographs and descriptions would help confirm their status.

In Washington, Defense Department spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan said the idea for the playing cards came from an army reserve officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

"Central Command agreed it was a good idea and so DIA put the cards together and sent some to Central Command. The troops don't have that many right now, they have just sent an initial shipment," added Lapan.

One of the notable absentees from the set is Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf, who denied US forces were anywhere near Baghdad even as their tanks rumbled through the capital.

Brooks laughed when asked at the Doha briefing if Sahhaf was one of the anonymous jokers.

The ever optimistic Iraqi spin doctor has also disappeared but already has an Internet site devoted to him. www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com was created by supporters and foes of the US-led invasion of Iraq, who, like many across the globe were often flabbergasted and amused by Sahhaf's pronouncements during the three-week campaign to take Baghdad.

Due to the overwhelming response, the webmaster said the site was suspended in search of a new web server.

Brooks said the 52 names had been provided to US and British forces on the ground in Iraq in several forms "to ease identification when contact does occur".

"And this deck of cards is one example of what we provide to soldiers ... and marines out in the field."

He said the list "will become more and more visible over the coming days. And the intent here is to help the coalition gain information from the Iraqi people, so that they also know exactly who it is we seek."

SPACE.WIRE