Washington: US administration officials have been scrambling to persuade the world that the US military's abuse of Iraqi prisoners was an aberration and that the guilty would be punished.

That assurance was given yesterday (May 4, 2004) through the media by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and his deputy, Richard Armitage.

The US State Department had planned to release at noon today (May 5, 2004) the details of the actions the administration had taken in pursuance of the human rights report, in which it had condemned or criticized almost all nations in the world. With the atrocities by American jailors against war prisoners in the background, it decided to postpone the release of that report.

The Defence Department will take all actions necessary to find out what happened at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and see that the appropriate actions are taken, the department's top civilian leader said yesterday.

US Congress was meanwhile very angry because the administration has not informed it of what happened.

Defence Secretary Rumsfeld told the media that the matter of alleged abuse of prisoners by US military personnel would be pursued properly under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

"The actions of the soldiers in those photographs are totally unacceptable and un-American," Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon press conference.