BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Saddam was taken to the hospital Sunday on the 17th day of a hunger strike launched to demand better security for his lawyers. Prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi said the ex-president's condition had stabilized and he should be fit to appear this week.

Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman adjourned the session July 11 to give the defense team time to reconsider a boycott they launched to protest the assassination of their colleague Khamis al-Obeidi on June 21. The defense team has blamed the slaying on Shiite militiamen.

But the defense announced last week that it would continue the boycott, despite the judge's threat to appoint attorneys to deliver final summations if the regular lawyers failed to show up.

During Monday's session, Saddam's half brother Barzan Ibrahim told the court he rejected his court-appointed counsel and asked for more time to find a new attorney or to convince his lawyers to come back.

Abdel-Rahman asked him to listen to the closing argument of the court-appointed lawyer but Barzan refused and said he wanted to leave.

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"I have lawyers as your honor knows but they are passing through very difficult and critical times because three of them were killed and one was injured and is still in hospital," Barzan said.

The judge ignored the comment and the court-appointed lawyer began his summation -- with his voice scrambled on a television video transmission to hide his identity.

Barzan was among the three defendants, along with Saddam and former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, who had been refusing food since July 7. Despite more than two weeks without food, Barzan appeared fit.

Saddam and seven former members of his regime are charged over a crackdown against Shiites in the town of Dujail launched after a 1982 assassination attempt against the Iraqi leader. They are accused of arresting hundreds of people, torturing women and children and killing 148 people who were sentenced to death.

The prosecution has asked that one defendant be acquitted for lack of evidence and for three other lesser figures to get more lenient sentences since they played only minor roles in the Dujail crackdown.

Saddam and the other three top defendants could face execution by hanging if convicted on the charges.

Saddam was hospitalized and fed with a tube after al-Moussawi learned his health had become "unstable because of the hunger strike" during a visit to the U.S.-run prison where the former ruler and the other defendants are held.

"We took him to the hospital, and he is being currently fed by a tube," al-Moussawi told The Associated Press without elaboration.

Al-Moussawi said the feeding tube had stabilized Saddam's health and the former president would appear in court as scheduled this week. Saddam was not scheduled to appear Monday when the trial resumes after a two-week break, because other defendants are to give their final summations.

U.S. officials had acknowledged that Saddam and three other detainees were refusing food since the evening meal of July 7 but were drinking coffee and sweet tea. The Americans insisted that Saddam was still in good health despite two weeks without food, and that he had been advised by "medical professionals" of the dangers of not eating.

A spokesman for the U.S. detention command would not say whether Saddam had been hospitalized but said he was under medical supervision and was "voluntarily" taking nutrients through a feeding tube.

"He's continuing to refuse meals," Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin Curry said. "He remains in coalition care and custody, and we're providing appropriate medical care."