CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - With a U.S. invasion looming, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein reached out to his people yesterday issuing a decree meant to empty his jails of everyone from pickpockets to political prisoners.

Freshly amnestied inmates were seen streaming out of Iraqi prisons carrying their belongings in plastic shopping bags and some chanting: "We sacrifice our blood and souls for Saddam."

The government called the amnesty a way of thanking the nation for re-electing Saddam last week in a referendum, but exiled Iraqis said the hearts-and-minds move was too little, too late. U.S. officials dismissed it as a ploy to rally domestic and international support.

"They better watch out where the next door is that puts them right back in jail. I mean, this is typical of this man's use of human beings for these political purposes of his," Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday on ABC's "This Week."

Wahid Abdel Meguid of the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, a Cairo-based think tank, said Saddam's move is an attempt to buy time. "Saddam has zero credibility. Nobody will trust him," Abdel Meguid said in an interview.