Washington: The United States believes a number of US troops fewer than 10 have gone missing in Iraq and could be held as prisoners of war (POWs)by the Iraqi military, senior Defence officials said on March 23.

"We believe there are some American soldiers missing," Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said.

Asked on NBC television whether they were being held as prisoners of war, he replied, "They could be" and later, "It's possible".

General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put the number of missing troops at "less than 10" and said there were active search efforts for them now underway in Southern Iraq.

Iraq has said it will shortly air television footage of US POWs and Rumsfeld reminded Iraq that it has international obligations to respect the rights of prisoners of war.

"Under the Geneva Convention, it's illegal to do things with prisoners of war that are humiliating to those individuals," Rumsfeld said.

"The United States of course avoids showing prisoners of war.

"We have thousand of Iraqi prisoners that are in POW camps ... but we avoid showing photographs of them."

Rumsfeld added that it was possible that the Iraqis could be preparing to broadcast footage of some Western journalists who were reported missing near the city of Basra on March 22.

"There are also some journalists that are missing and it could be that they have some journalists, but time will tell," he said.

Agencies