US: President Bush's national security adviser, Dr Condoleezza Rice, has apologised for the US abuse of Iraqi prisoners as the White House scrambled to stem growing Arab outrage.
"We are deeply sorry for what has happened to these people, and what the families must be feeling. It's just not right. And we will get to the bottom of what happened," Dr Rice told Al-Arabiya television in an interview on Tuesday.
"Obviously, people have to be incarcerated if they've done something wrong, but they should be treated with dignity," Dr Rice said.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on morning television shows yesterday that "any American" felt apologetic for abuses of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers.
However, he stopped short of offering a direct apology himself.
Asked on ABC whether he would like to apologise to the Iraqi people, Mr Rumsfeld replied: "Oh my goodness, any American who sees the photographs that we have seen has to feel apologetic to the Iraqi people who were abused and recognise that that is something that is unacceptable and un-American."
But the new general brought in to run US military jails in Iraq following the prisoner abuse scandal was less reticent yesterday.
Maj Gen Geoffrey Miller offered his own and his nation's apologies for the affair yesterday to the people of Iraq.
"I would like to apologise for our nation and for our military for the small number of leaders and soldiers that have committed unauthorised and possibly illegal acts on the detained here at Abu Ghraib," Maj Gen Miller said at the prison outside Baghdad where troops abused inmates last year.
He added: "I would like to personally apologise to the people of Iraq for the actions of a small number of leaders and soldiers who have violated our policies . . . I will personally guarantee that this will not happen again."