Lawyers representing Iraq's fugitive vice president have asked the court to summon the nation's president as a defense witness in the Sunni official's terror trial.

The Baghdad court hearing the case against Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi immediately rejected the request on Thursday but said the defense can appeal.

Al-Hashemi, one of Iraq's highest-ranking Sunni Muslim politicians, is accused of running death squads that targeted Shiite Muslims.

The vice president, who has sought refuge in Turkey, says he is innocent and the victim of a political vendetta by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite.

Al-Maliki is facing mounting complaints from within his broad-based unity government that he is excluding minority Sunni and Kurdish coalition partners from power.