BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein's date with the executioner could come any day, after an appeals court upheld the deposed Iraqi leader's death sentence Tuesday, saying he must hang for ordering mass slayings in a Shiite Muslim town in 1982.

The decision, announced at a hastily convened news conference in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, could fan surging bloodshed between Iraq's ascendant Shiite Muslim majority and a disaffected Sunni Arab minority that had long been favored under Saddam. Government and security officials said they were bracing for more violence when the sentence is carried out but insisted that any surge would be short-lived.

Aref Shahin, chief judge of the appeals panel, said there was no further legal recourse for Saddam, and the Iraqi executive is free to send him to the gallows “any day ... starting from tomorrow.” The execution must be carried out within 30 days.

President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies have to sign off on the execution order before it is implemented. Talabani, a Kurd, opposes the death penalty but has in previous cases deputized a vice president to sign on his behalf. The Iraqi High Tribunal had handed down death sentences against Saddam and two co-defendants Nov. 5 for orchestrating an attack on the Shiite town of Dujail in the wake of a failed assassination plot against him. Hundreds were detained, tortured and forced out of there homes, and more than 100 men and boys were executed after a summary trial.

Under Iraqi law, the verdicts and sentences automatically went for review before a nine-judge appeals chamber.