Baghdad - Uday Saddam Hussein, elder son of the Iraqi president, has been awarded an academic title he alone has earned from the nation's universities.

News of the degree, higher than that of a doctorate, was announced by local media on Tuesday.

The award follows a 320-page thesis called The Future of the Arab Nation in the 21st Century which Uday presented on Monday to a gathering of ministers and eminent academics.

Youth Television, which is run by Uday, showed Saddam Hussein's son defending his thesis on Tuesday.

The 37-year-old, who already has a political science doctorate from Baghdad University, is a member of parliament, chairs Iraq's Olympic committee and football federation, as well as owning a trading and media empire.

In his doctorate, published in 1998 by his own newspaper, Babel, Uday argued that the United States lost world dominance in the 21st century, sharing superpowerdom with Japan, the European Union and China. - Sapa-AFP

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2002