BRITAIN: The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, last night apologised to any Iraqi prisoners abused by British soldiers.
The Prime Minister said any such action was "absolutely and totally unacceptable".
And he pledged that any soldier found guilty of mistreating prisoners would face the full force of army discipline.
"We apologise deeply to anyone who has been mistreated by any of our soldiers," he said.
"That is absolutely and totally unacceptable. Those who are responsible for this - if they behaved in this appalling way - they will be punished according to the army discipline and
rules."
Mr Blair was speaking on French television during his trip to France to mark Europe day.
Britain's Defence Secretary Mr Geoff Hoon will make a Commons statement today as the scandal about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners threatens to engulf the Blair government and further erode British support for the war.
An opinion poll yesterday found public backing for the war at an all-time low, while suggesting Chancellor Gordon Brown might now be the only leader to preserve Labour's overall parliamentary majority at the next election.
The poll coincided with a suggestion by film-maker Lord Puttnam, a personal friend of the Prime Minister, that Mr Tony Blair should resign and make way for Mr Brown before the Commons' summer recess.
Mr Blair, he said, was now synonymous with the "bad news" flowing out of Iraq, months of which would damage Labour's electoral prospects.
At the same time former foreign secretary Mr Robin Cook said the time would come when Mr Blair had to ask himself if he should quit because the "major mistake" of Iraq was over-shadowing his domestic achievements.
Mr Hoon's decision to report to MPs on the latest situation in Iraq came after Mr Cook joined Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in demanding publication of last February's report by the Red Cross to reveal what British ministers knew, and when, about the alleged abuses in the jail.
As UK newspapers reported possible charges against British soldiers - for offences ranging from alleged abuse of prisoners, serious sexual assaults and unlawful killings - Mr Cook insisted the government must make the Red Cross report public. "Until they do, really we cannot see what independent people are saying about the problem, and how severe it is," he said.
On Saturday the Guardian claimed humiliating sexual abuse in Abu Ghraib was consistent with procedures taught to British and American special forces.
Speaking on yesterday's Breakfast with Frost programme, Mr Cook said: "I think (US Defence Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld has to accept responsibility, because really I find it very hard looking at these photographs to say this is just the result of some bad eggs.
"If these people were carrying out the systematic brutality in order to soften
people up for interrogation, somebody higher up the chain was giving them
instructions to do that," Mr Cook added.
That question became more pressing for the Blair government yesterday as the Observer reported that British military intelligence officers were interrogating prisoners in Abu Ghraib even as the first reports of the abuses there came to
light.
At the same time the former health secretary, Mr Frank Dobson, served notice on Mr Hoon that he could face serious Labour opposition over the expected deployment of more British troops to Iraq. Speaking on GMTV's Sunday Programme, Mr Dobson echoed Mr Cook's rejection of suggestions that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners was the work of "a few bad apples."