European Union foreign ministers are set to condemn US soldiers' abuse of Iraqi prisoners, saying the actions breached international law, according to a draft text.
"The Council expressed its strongest condemnation of incidents involving the abuse and degradation of prisoners in Iraq by soldiers of the occupying forces," a draft statement said. "Such actions are contrary to international law."
Seven US military police reservists have been charged after pictures showed grinning troops beside naked detainees piled atop one another and subjected to other humiliations in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
"The Council welcomed the commitment of the US and UK authorities to bring to justice persons guilty of such abuses and their determination to implement measures to prevent any such abuses in the future," the draft statement added.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he supported the text and the wording was unlikely to change. "These abuses of prisoners were and are outrageous, totally unacceptable and they have been condemned by all coalition partners, including by the President of the United States in my presence on Friday," he said.
The prisoner-abuse scandal has put European governments that joined the United States in the occupation on the defensive, and made it less likely that EU states which opposed the war will send forces to help stabilise Iraq amid continuing violence.
But as the Washington and London struggle to contain the scandal, Mr Straw cast doubt on allegations of abuse by British soldiers in southern Iraq last September. On Friday, the Danish Defence Ministry said two Danish army medics in Iraq saw two prisoners at a British field hospital who had been beaten, one of them to death.
"It's being looked at by the British authorities although speaking for myself I have to say that I have seen no collateral supporting evidence in respect of this," Mr Straw said.
Washington insists a small number of low-level guards were to blame for the harsh tactics used to "soften up" those interrogated. Efforts to dampen the scandal were dealt a blow yesterday by a report, vehemently disputed by the Pentagon, that the abuse was part of an interrogation technique personally approved by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The New Yorkermagazine said Mr Rumsfeld authorised expanding to Abu Ghraib methods used in Afghanistan against suspected members of al-Qaeda.