The slimmer, drawn but unrepentant ex-president, who ruled Iraq with an iron fist for 24 years, defended his invasion of Kuwait and refused to sign legal papers as he made his first appearance before the cameras since his arrest in December.
"Bush is a villain, all of this is theatre. It is for his re-election," he said, referring to US President George W. Bush whose forces led the invasion of Iraq last year.
Saddam, smartly dressed in a grey jacket and white shirt but with no tie, his greying beard contrasting with his black hair, gesticulated and jabbed his finger at the judge during the 30-minute hearing.
"I am the president of Iraq and I am an Iraqi," he said at the beginning of the proceedings, held under tight security on a US military base called Camp Victory, a former resort belonging to Saddam, adjacent to the Baghdad airport complex.
As seven preliminary charges were read against him, Saddam denied that his 1990 invasion of Kuwait was an attack on a neighbouring country.
"Kuwait is an Iraqi territory. It was not an invasion," he thundered.
"I returned to Kuwait because the Kuwaitis were buying Iraqi women for 10 dinars ... The Kuwaitis are dogs," he added, earning a sharp rebuke from the judge.
The proceedings took place just three days after Iraq's interim government regained sovereignty from the US-led coalition whose forces toppled Saddam.
The ex-president and 11 senior members of his regime, who also appeared in front of the Iraqi Special Tribunal on Thursday, have been handed over to Iraqi legal custody but remain guarded by US-led multinational forces.
Thursday's hearings began what is likely to be a protracted process with formal indictments against the 12 not expected for months.
A tribunal official said Saddam was accused of "crimes against humanity" relating to the gassing of Kurds at Halabja in 1988, and the violent suppression of the Shia uprising that followed the 1991 Gulf war.
Formal charges will also be drawn up over the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the massacre of members of the Kurdish Barzani tribe in the 1980s and the deaths of Shia religious leaders between 1980 and 1999.
But a plan to charge him over his role in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war was dropped, an official said later.
Asked about the Halabja attack, in which about 5,000 people were killed in 1988, Saddam said merely: "I heard about it in the media."
When told he had the right to hire a defence lawyer, the ex-president said, "According to the Americans I have millions of dollars in Geneva so I should be able to afford that."
Saddam, who appeared without a lawyer, also refused to sign a document acknowledging that he understood his rights.
"Please excuse me from not signing this without the presence of a lawyer. I do not want to commit to an act that could be considered hasty," he said.
The toppled dictator was transported to the courtroom in an armoured bus flanked by four Humvees and an ambulance after being flown there in a helicopter.
Upon arrival, Saddam was led handcuffed and with a chain around his waist into the building by two Iraqi prison guards, while six more guards stood to attention at the door.
The handcuffs and chains were taken off before he stepped into the courtroom.
Saddam's defence team, which has not yet been allowed to enter Iraq, on Thursday again slammed the tribunal as "illegal".
"This court is illegal since it was designated by an illegal authority, created by the occupation," one of the lawyers, Jordanian Ziad Khassawneh, said in Amman.
Kuwait's information minister slammed Saddam as "war criminal" who must face the death penalty.
"We demand that he face the maximum punishment, which is death for his crimes," Mohammed Abulhassan said in Kuwait City.
Minutes after Saddam left the courtroom, his former presidential secretary Abed Hamid Mahmud was brought in.
Other top members of the former regime brought before the court included former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz and Saddam's first cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in the Halabja attack.
Justice Minister Malek Dohan al-Hassan said Saddam would be condemned to death if found guilty. The death sentence - suspended by the US-led coalition - was restored after Monday's handover to the interim government.
Here is the final list of charges against Saddam.
The charges relate to:
1) The gassing of Kurds in Halabja in 1988
2) The suppression of the 1991 Shiite Muslim uprising
3) The 1987-1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds
4) The 1990 invasion of Kuwait
5) Massacre of members of the Kurdish Barzani tribe in 1983
6) The intentional killing of religious leaders
7) The intentional killing of political leaders.