US: On a day when the Bush administration struggled to contain international and domestic outrage over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers, the Bush administration was forced to turn to an irate Congress for an extra $25 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With the chasm between the White House and Congress widening over Iraq, members of both parties demanded that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld come to Capitol Hill to testify about the prisoner abuse scandals and the chaos in Iraq.
Demands for Mr Rumsfeld's resignation are reaching such a pitch that the White House felt compelled yesterday to say that Mr Bush still had full confidence in his Defence Secretary.
Mr Rumsfeld faces demands for inquiries into prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, as the scandal focuses attention on the US treatment of prisoners worldwide.
Evidence of a pattern of brutality is emerging, and yesterday an intelligence official in Washington revealed that the CIA inspector-general is investigating two deaths, one at an Afghan prison involving an independent contractor on the CIA payroll, the other in Iraq involving a CIA interrogator. The deaths of two other inmates in Iraq have already been ruled homicides and criminal investigations are being conducted in the case of 10 prisoners who have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.
Wearing a black suit and looking sombre, President Bush went on two Arabic TV stations yesterday to say that the action of the US soldiers who humiliated Iraqi detainees was "abhorrent" and did not represent "the America that I know".
American people were just as appalled as Iraqis, said Mr Bush, who stopped short of making an apology. "The America I know is a compassionate country that believes in freedom. The America I know cares about every individual. The America I know has sent troops into Iraq to promote freedom - good honourable citizens that are helping Iraqis everyday."
Mr Bush said he had instructed Mr Rumsfeld to tell everybody in the military that he wanted to know the full extent of prison operations in Iraq, "to make sure there was no systemic problem." He acknowledged the image of the US from photographs of abuse was "terrible" but added that "a dictator wouldn't be saying that the system will be investigated."
He said: "In a democracy everything is not perfect, mistakes are made. But in a democracy, as well, those mistakes will be investigated and people will be brought to justice."
The request for an extra $25 billion in the federal budget, starting October 1st, reflects the burgeoning cost of fighting the insurrection in Iraq.
Extra tanks and armoured vehicles are being sent there to help cut down casualties, and Mr Rumsfeld announced on Tuesday that troop levels of 135,000 will be maintained until the end of next year. This has accounted for rising anger on Capitol Hill, where Congress members were told the number would be reduced to 115,000 by now and a request for extra military funding would not come until after the November election.
The chairman of the Senate armed services committee, Senator John Warner, said after discussions with White House budget chief Joshua Bolten, that funds would have to be found to pay for making soldiers safer.
President Bush also said in yesterday's interview that Iraqis "will deal with" rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whom US-led forces had vowed to kill or capture themselves.
"The Iraqis will deal with Mr Sadr," he said.
He said Iraqis were losing patience with the rebel cleric for "occupying" Iraqi holy sites.
"We are very respectful for the holy sites in Iraq. We understand their importance to the Iraqi citizens. Mr Sadr is occupying those sites as if they're his, and I think the Iraqi citizens are getting tired of that," Mr Bush said.
But the American president said US-led troops and Iraqi forces would "deal with these militias". Mr Bush made the comments after fresh clashes between US-led forces and Shia Muslim militiamen loyal to al-Sadr in the holy city of Kerbala and at Kufa, killing 15 fighters, the US military said.
Apparently growing impatient with the cleric, a host of leading Shia politicians met on Tuesday to demand that he move his force out of Kerbala and the nearby holy city of Najaf.
Mr Bush's interviews were with Al-Hurra, a US-government funded Arabic-language station and Al-Arabiya television, a popular satellite channel based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.