Washington ? The Bush administration is building cases against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and more than a dozen members of his inner circle who could be charged with crimes against humanity if the Iraqi government is toppled, according to U.S. officials.

Saddam is at the top of a working list of war crimes suspects, joined by his sons Uday and Qusay, each of whom has a reputation for brutality. Also on the list are Ali Hassan Majeed, known as “Chemical Ali” for his use of chemical weapons against Kurds in northern Iraq, and Izzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council.

Those five belong to a core group of about a dozen Iraqis whose actions on behalf of the Iraqi government are deemed by U.S. officials and human rights groups to merit charges of genocide or crimes against humanity. Dozens of other Iraqi officials also are considered badly tainted and could face charges in post-Saddam Iraq after further investigation, sources said.

The likelihood of U.S.-backed war crimes trials for the Iraqi leadership, if Saddam is overthrown, recalls the Nuremberg prosecutions that followed Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II and the international tribunal now prosecuting former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague. The fate of Iraq’s leadership cadre is considered crucial to the success of any U.S.-led operation against Saddam, and central to the way Iraqis rebound from three decades of dictatorship.

The administration has not yet decided how deeply to target the Iraqi leadership and who would lead any criminal case. But as U.S. war planning intensifies, so does the urgency of identifying friend and foe in Iraq, officials said, adding that U.S. military commanders would be required to make swift choices about whom to arrest and whom to welcome as a partner.

“The top people around” Saddam must go, said Undersecretary of State John Bolton. Likening the situation to de-Nazification in post-war Germany, Bolton said the rebirth of Iraq requires the removal of people “who are so fundamentally part of Saddam’s entourage that their remaining in power would have the problem persist.”

The venue for prosecution has not been determined, but U.S. officials say a consensus is forming around establishing courts in post-Saddam Iraq that would be staffed in part by international jurists. Such courts would draw upon ongoing evidence-gathering efforts in other countries, including projects supported in recent years with $10.8 million in U.S. funds.

The International Criminal Court is not an option because it does not have jurisdiction over events that happened before it came into existence on July 1. Nor is Iraq a signatory to the convention that created it.