AMMAN Jordan AP Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's half-brother returned home on Tuesday after telling a Jordanian newspaper he does not want a new government post. Barzan al-Tikriti who said he wants to spend more time with his children crossed the Jordanian border into Iraq earlier in the day Iraqi diplomats and Jordanian border officials said. Al-Tikriti had been expected to leave earlier but the Iraqi diplomats said he delayed his departure by two days to see friends in Jordan. They spoke on customary condition of anonymity. Al-Tikriti 46 who headed Iraq's mission to the United Nations in Geneva for a decade was among 30 Iraqi ambassadors and diplomats recalled to Baghdad over the summer. There had been recurring rumors from Iraqi exiles that he was seeking to defect to the opposition. But he told reporters on arrival here from Switzerland on Sunday that he had no political differences with Saddam and that he had delayed his departure from Switzerland because his wife Ahlam was being treated for breast cancer. She died in Switzerland last month. There had been reports al-Tikriti would be named to a Cabinet post after his return to Baghdad. He previously was a director of Iraqi intelligence. In an interview with Jordan's Al-Arab Al-Yawm newspaper published on Tuesday al-Tikriti said he was ``not promised any post and I do not wish that.'' He added: ``The only thing I hope from the bottom of my heart is that President Saddam will absolve me from responsibilities because I'm in a tragic mental state and I will not be able to carry out the minimum requirements of any post.'' The daily quoted him as saying that he left his children in Switzerland to continue their educations and that he plans to ``spend more time with them since they need me more in view of the death of their mother.'' He is believed to have six children. Al-Tikriti repeated his scathing attack on the Western media saying it had ``fabricated'' reports that he supervised the transfer of contraband arms to Baghdad and that he later fell out with Saddam and retained billions of dollars of the president's private funds abroad. APW19981201.0083.txt.body.html APW19981201.0005.txt.body.html