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BAGHDAD -- Saddam Hussein used to hold the Babylon Festival at the end of Iraq's sweltering summers on the site of the ancient ruins of Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, an hour's drive south of the capital. It was agitprop, an annual expression of megalomania and, until the last one in fall 2002, with war already in the air, a forum for railing against the United States. This year the Ministry of Culture decided to revive the festival over three days that ended on Monday. The organizers, supported by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, envisioned a celebration of a new democratic Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]