WASHINGTON, May 31: US President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that human rights report comparing the Guantanamo Bay military prison to a Soviet-era gulag is ‘absurd’ and claimed that allegations of torture and mistreating of Holy Quran were made by prisoners ‘who hate America.” He said that he believed that the fledging Iraqi government could defeat terrorists although their attacks on Iraqi civilians and US soldiers had intensified.

Keeping his second-term pledge to hold at least one news conference each month, the US president defiantly stood by his domestic policy agenda and defended his actions abroad. “It is an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world,” he said of the Amnesty International report.

The US president said that his government had investigated ‘every single allegation’ of torture and abuse of detainees at the prison, and said that the detainees were being treated humanely.

With the death toll climbing daily in Iraq, he told reporters at the White House Rose Garden: “The Iraqi people dealt the insurgents a serious blow when we had the elections. In other words, what the insurgents fear is democracy because democracy is the opposition of their vision.”

On another foreign policy issue, President Bush said that it was a ‘reasonable decision’ to allow Iran to apply for WTO membership as a way to advance diplomatic discussions with Europe on Iran’s nuclear program. President Bush urged further diplomacy to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.