BAGHDAD: In Washington, shocking images of foreign troops abusing Iraqi prisoners are an exception to the rule of American good intentions. In Baghdad, they look like signs of what Iraq's dignity means to its occupiers.

"Pimps...don't do what the Americans do," said Abdel Wadoud Muhbal, a currency trader in the Iraqi capital.

Photos from a Baghdad prison, aired on a US television network and Arab channels, show American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners as other captors laugh and give the thumbs-up sign.

The images, as well as those of soldiers from Britain humiliating their Iraqi captives, have sparked Arab outrage, international condemnation and a plea from US President George Bush for Iraqis to judge his nation on its avowed principles, not the scenes of degradation in Iraq.

Few seemed inclined to listen, with a member of Iraq's Governing Council referring to the soldiers involved as war criminals.

"We are dealing with Iraqis who are considered political prisoners, not common criminals," said Sheikh Ghazi al Yawar. "We demand an official apology from the United States to the Iraqi people generally and to those prisoners in particular."

Their captors, he said, "should be tried as war criminals according to international law".

Iraqis saw the images of abuse via television. The country's major newspapers, including those at odds with the US-led occupation, did not publish the photographs which have been splashed across the pages of European publications.

CAME TO "DESTROY HONOUR": Iraqi editors were not immediately available for comment on Saturday, a day off for most people. Senior US military officials have discussed the handling of the images with Arab satellite channels, but it was not immediately clear whether those contacts included print media.

"Those few people who did that do not reflect the nature of the men and women we've sent overseas," President Bush said on Friday. "That's not the way the people are. It's not their character, that are serving our nation in the cause of freedom."

But among Iraqis whose general relief at the fall of Saddam Hussein has turned into resentment of the army that ousted him, Mr Bush's words were dismissed as lip service from an ally of Israel intent on subjugating and humiliating Muslims, especially Arabs.-Reuters