US: President George Bush yesterday dismissed an Amnesty International report as "absurd" for its characterisation of US detention centres for terrorist suspects as America's "gulag".
"I'm aware of the Amnesty International report. It's an absurd allegation," he told reporters at the White House.
"The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world. When there are accusations made about certain actions by people they are fully investigated in a transparent way."
In a scathing report last week on the US's human rights record, Amnesty International compared Guantanamo and other US prison camps around the world to the Soviet-era prison system, where dissidents were sent to camps without trial.
The annual report accused the United States of shirking its responsibility to set the bar for human rights protections and said Washington had instead created a new lexicon for abuse and torture.
Some 540 prisoners from about 40 countries are held at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Many have been held for three years without charge.
The allegations of US breach of human rights were made by "people who hate America," Mr Bush said.
In a Rose Garden news conference called at short notice, he said that, despite the violence in Iraq, the new government there was "plenty capable" of defeating the insurgency.
This echoes a comment by Vice-President Dick Cheney on CNN on Monday evening that "the level of [ violent] activity will clearly decline. They are on the last throes of the insurgency."
"I think the Iraqi people dealt the insurgents a serious blow when we had the elections," Mr Bush said.
"In other words, what the insurgents fear is democracy because democracy is the opposite of their vision."
The US had "begun to lay the foundations of democracy that will bring peace to this part of the world".
Mr Bush sought to dampen apprehensions of a military strike by the US against North Korea, following news that Washington had withdrawn a military team from Pyongyang that was liaising on US soldiers missing in action since the Korean War, and the deployment of stealth jets to South Korea. "All options are on the table," he said, "but we've got a way to go to solve this diplomatically." He would not give a timetable, he said, but "the six-party talks can and will succeed".
The talks between the US, China, Japan, Russia, and South and North Korea are currently stalled after Pyongyang pulled out, citing insults from the Bush administration.
"It is clear from the other five parties that these people do want to resolve this situation diplomatically," Mr Bush said.
He began the news conference by urging Congress to pass energy legislation, cut back government spending growth, approve the Central American Free Trade Agreement and agree on a plan to change social security with a partial privatisation plan.
Asked about the incident when he was not notified when bicycling in Virginia about the intrusion of a private aircraft into Washington air space, causing panic, he said he was "comfortable" with the way the matter was handled.
The president also appealed to the Senate to give a confirmation vote to his nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton. He accused the Democrats of a "stalling technique" in delaying an up-or-down vote, while it demanded documents about Mr Bolton from the administration.