By Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD, Nov 12 (Reuters) - U.S. forces on Monday rebuffed demands from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for three former high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's government and military to be handed over so they could be hanged.

The U.S. military said it would continue to keep the men in its custody until the Iraqi government resolved an internal dispute over the legal and procedural requirements for carrying out the death sentences.

An appeals court in September upheld the sentences against Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, widely known as "Chemical Ali", former Defence Minister Sultan Hashem, and a former army commander, Hussein Rashid Muhammad.

The three were convicted of genocide for their roles in a campaign against Iraq's Kurds in 1988 in which tens of thousands of people were killed. Under Iraq's constitution their sentences should have been carried out within 30 days.

Maliki accused the U.S. embassy on Sunday of thwarting his Shi'ite-led government's attempts to execute the three and demanded they be handed over as soon as possible so their sentences could be carried out.

"The Coalition Forces are not refusing to relinquish custody. We are waiting for the GOI (government of Iraq) to come to consensus as to what their law requires before preparing a physical transfer," said Colonel Steve Boylan, spokesman for the U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.

"Changes in Iraqi law subsequent (to) earlier executions have led to disagreement within the GOI as to what the applicable requirements now are," Boylan said.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, insist that the constitution gives the three-man presidency council final authority for approving the executions. Both men are opposed to the hangings going ahead.

Maliki disagrees and his government tried unsuccessfully to execute the prisoners in September. That attempt was stopped only after Hashemi threatened to resign.

"There continues to be differences in viewpoint within the government ... regarding the necessary Iraqi legal and procedural requirements for carrying out death sentences issued by the Iraqi High Tribunal," Boylan said.

"Coalition Forces will continue to retain physical custody of the defendants until this issue is resolved in accordance with their laws," he said in an email to Reuters.

Maliki's government last month formed a seven-member committee, including legal experts and advisers to Talabani and Maliki, to reach consensus on the issue.

While many Iraqis are anxious to see Chemical Ali, once one of the most feared men in Iraq, go to the gallows, there has been a chorus of calls from the Sunni Arab community for Hashem's life to be spared, with many arguing he was a soldier simply following orders. (Editing by Sami Aboudi)

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