TOKYO, Japan: A lawyers' panel said US President George W. Bush and British Premier Tony Blair deserve life sentences, with the possibility of parole after 25 years, for the war crimes and genocide in Iraq.

They should face the “maximum penalty available,” said chief justice of the four-person board of the International Criminal Tribunal for Iraq (ICTI) Kohki Abe.

Abe, a professor of law at Kanagawa University, was speaking on Monday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.

The tribunal has headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey, and a final meeting of regional panels is scheduled for June.

In conjunction with similar legal movements around the world, the Japanese chapter of the tribunal was set up in July last year, bringing together more than 25 lawyers from around the world. More than 10,000 Japanese people have supported its work with financial donations.

“The people's tribunal does not have any binding force, and critics say that makes it useless because it doesn't have any power,” Abe said adding “But I believe that delivering this judgment and giving a legal interpretation of the acts committed by the defendants shows that it is playing an important role.”

As well as the leaders of the US and the UK who were found guilty on 13 and eight counts respectively, the ICTI has found Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the president of the Philippines Gloria Arroyo guilty of numerous charges relating to their involvement in Iraq.