Washington: The International Red Cross today (May 7, 2004) said it had nearly a year ago warned US officials of prisoner abuse in Iraq, which was systematic and tantamount to "torture".

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In a confidential report covering the period March to November 2003 and delivered to the Bush administration in February it said that abuse of Iraqi prisoners in the custody of the US military was widespread.

Among other allegations, the report said that prisoners were kept naked in empty cells at Baghdad's Abu Gharib prison so notorious under the Saddam Hussein administration and now under US control that one member of Congress wants it blown up, the 'Wall Street Journal' which reviewed the report said.

In Geneva, Director of Operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross Pierre Kraehenbuehl said, "Our findings were discussed at different moments between March and November 2003 either in direct face-to-face conversation or in written interventions."

He also said that the report published by the Journal was genuine.

The report details say that the prisoners were beaten by coalition forces, in one case leading to death; that coalition forces fired on unarmed prisoners multiple times from watchtowers, killing some of them and that coalition forces committed "serious violations" of the Geneva Conventions.