THE US army failed to react to early signs of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and missed opportunities to correct lapses that caused prisoner abuse elsewhere. However, its own policies and top officials were not directly to blame, a Pentagon report said yesterday.

Videos capturing the actions of a US military squad assigned to subdue disobedient prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have emerged as key pieces of evidence as American politicians look into complaints of abuse.

Lawyers are advising the Defence Department not to publicly release any more photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused by US soldiers, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today at the outset of a hastily-arranged visit to Iraq aimed at containing the abuse scandal.