President Bush yesterday resisted a growing chorus of demands to fire Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld, while publicly rebuking him for not warning of the crisis over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, writes Conor O'Clery, North America Editor, in Washington.
As more devastating pictures of the abuse of prisoners emerged yesterday, Mr Bush for the first time offered a form of apology for the conduct of US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
After a meeting with King Abdullah 11 of Jordan at the White House, Mr Bush said: "I told him I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by Iraqi prisoners and I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by their families."
Widely criticised for not apologising in Arab television interviews on Wednesday, Mr Bush went on to say in a trembling voice that the actions had "sickened me to my stomach", and he was "sickened" that people have got a wrong impression of America.
Asked if he intended firing Mr Rumsfeld, whose department is responsible for running Iraq, Mr Bush praised his service and said: "He's an important part of my Cabinet and he'll stay in my Cabinet."
However, when asked what he told the Defence Secretary when he summoned him to the White House on Wednesday, Mr Bush said sharply: "I told him I should have known about the pictures and the report."
The President was not informed until last week of a two-month-old Pentagon report which revealed "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" at Abu Ghraib.
Mr Rumsfeld is now under heavy pressure to apologise when he appears today before furious members of the Senate Armed Services Committee who have summoned him to explain the pictures and why Congress members were also kept in the dark.
As several Democrats and newspaper editorials called for his resignation, Mr Rumsfeld cancelled his schedule yesterday to prepare for a blistering encounter on Capitol Hill that could decide his political future.
Calling on the Defence Secretary to step down for failing to act on repeated recommendations to curb abuse, House Minority Leader Ms Nancy Pelosi accused Mr Rumsfeld of being "engaged in a cover-up from the start on this issue".
Congress member Mr Charles Wrangle said that if the president didn't fire him, Mr Rumsfeld should be impeached.
Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa said: "For the good of our country, the safety of our troops and our image around the globe, Secretary Rumsfeld should resign."
Senator Edward Kennedy stopped short of calling for Mr Rumsfeld to go but predicted that his future would be determined by his testimony.
Most Republican members publicly defended the Defence Secretary, though Senator John McCain said: "There's a lot of explaining that Secretary Rumsfeld and others have to do." House Majority leader Mr Tom Delay accused Democrats of trying to politicise the war.