Iraq's parliament went into emergency session today with loyal deputies pledging to lay down their lives for President Saddam Hussein as a deadline for a US assault neared.
"We'll sacrifice our blood and souls for Saddam," several legislators chanted as the session started, waving their fists in the air and drawing applause from others in the chamber.
Some warned the United States would face "unexpected" reprisals if it went ahead with its pledge to invade.
Speaker Mr Saadoun Hammadi told deputies, all loyal to Saddam, that they should rally behind their leader and dismissed US threats to invade Iraq if he did not go into exile.
"Iraq is not the country that will accept what the US administration has told it," Mr Hammadi said.
"We reject and denounce it and we are all standing together behind our leader, and we're ready to defend our land. The fate of invaders is the same - failure and the curse of history.
"The people of Iraq, who gave us this responsibility by electing us as its representatives, stand today as one rank, as one voice, as one rifle against the criminal oppressive aggression of the US and its allies."
A succession of deputies then spoke, seated behind their desks. They were unanimous in rejecting the US ultimatum.
Some called on US President George W. Bush to go into exile, one denouncing him as the "pharaoh of our time".