Saddam Hussein's private luxury train, equipped with chandeliers and Italian-made curtains, is being put into public service next month to help ease a train shortage, Iraqi rail officials said yesterday.

The 23-carriage French-built train was kept at a secret location for three decades and shielded from the widespread looting that followed the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Starting next month, the train will ferry passengers between Baghdad and the southern city of Basra, said Karim al-Tamimi, a spokesman for Iraq's rail system.