Washington: US President George W Bush and the State Department today (Apr 30, 2004) expressed "disgust" at the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq but a top US Commander, while deploring it and promising punishment for those involved, said there would be no apology.

Pictures published and broadcast around the world showed US troops smiling, posing, laughing or giving the thumbs-up sign as naked, male Iraq prisoners were stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts with one another.

Bush, at a joint appearance with Prime Minister Martin of Canada in the White House Rose Garden, said when asked by a reporter for his reaction to the photos and asked, "How are you going to win their hearts and minds with these sort of tactics?

"Yes, I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated. Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. And so I didn't like it one bit.

"But I also want to remind people that those few people who did that do not reflect the nature of the men and women we've sent overseas. That's not the way the people are, that's not their character that are serving our nation in the cause of freedom. And thee will be an investigation. I think they'll be taken care of, " he said.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmit, deputy director, Coalition Operations, in Baghdad said, "Am I going to apologize for those soldiers? Hell no. They did wrong. It would appear to us that if, in fact, the pictures are what they appear to be, they will face a court of law, a criminal court of law, and they will have to face a judge and a jury for their action."