US President George W Bush tried to quell worldwide outrage over the abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by the US military, calling the acts the "wrongdoing of a few."
Mr Bush's comments in his weekly radio address on Saturday, came a day after embattled US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned in congressional testimony that more damaging images of
mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners might be published.
Mr Rumsfeld apologized for the abuse of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. But the apology, like one from Mr Bush on Thursday, failed to calm anger in the Arab world.
"Apology is not enough. What they have committed against the Iraqis won't be erased from our memory. The Rumsfeld apology is nothing but a media maneuver," said Mr Taha Duraib Hussein a shop owner in Baghdad.
Photographs in the media last week showed US soldiers grinning as they posed with naked Iraqi prisoners shown in humiliating positions.
"What took place in that Iraqi prison was the wrongdoing of a few, and does not reflect the character of the more than 200,000 military personnel who have served in Iraq since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom," Mr Bush said.
The president's description of the extent of wrongdoing conflicted with an International Committee of the Red Cross report that mistreatment, sometimes close to torture, was rife and may have been condoned by US forces.
In the Democrats' weekly radio address, retired Gen. Wesley Clark said the abuse had cost the United States credibility and undermined an already troubled military mission.
"This is a mission in trouble," the former presidential candidate and NATO commander said.