US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorised the expansion of a secret programme that encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of prisoners to obtain intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq, a US magazine claims.

The Pentagon is pursuing five separate investigations into claims that Iraqi prisoners were abused.

US Marines began pulling back from some positions around the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah today, according to unconfirmed reports.

A man close to Saddam Hussein is believed to be helping co-ordinate attacks on American forces with members of an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group, a senior US defence official said.

The Bush administration says it will try to use diplomacy to deal with North Korea’s claim that it has produced enough plutonium for about six nuclear bombs.