WASHINGTON, March 1: Two key US allies in the "war on terror" - Saudi Arabia and Russia - have received prominent mention in the US State Department report on human rights abuses. The report was released on Monday.

The inclusion of Saudi Arabia is particularly significant as it is not only America's major oil supplier and a key military ally but also enjoys a pivotal place in the Arab and Muslim worlds.

The report, which is sent to Congress as an official document, points out that "the record of human rights abuses and violations for Saudi Arabia still far exceeds the advances." It also criticizes the kingdom's slow progress in granting equal status to women.

Another key Arab ally, Egypt, is censured for not giving its citizens "the meaningful ability to change their government" and for allowing its armed forces to mistreat and torture prisoners and for conducting arbitrary and mass arrests.

Sudan, Africa's largest nation is signalled out for human rights violations in the Darfur region. The United States wants Sudan punished with international sanctions because of what it says is genocide in Darfur.

Algeria, which struggled with terrorism and civil strife in the 1990s, is mentioned in the State Department report as a country with an "overall poor" human rights record and for restricting freedom of expression.

The harshest criticism, however, is reserved for Iran, a country President George W. Bush has counted among the "axis of evil". "Continuing serious abuses (in Iran) included: summary executions; disappearances; torture and other degrading treatment, reportedly including severe punishments such as amputations and flogging," says the report.

But critics point out that the 1,000-page long report failed to focus on the abuses committed in Iraq by US soldiers, such as torturing detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

SYMPATHY FOR ALGERIA: The report shows some sympathy with the countries that have serious human rights problems but are also struggling to fight terrorism and religious extremism.

Algeria, it notes, is emerging from over a decade of terrorism and civil strife in which between 100,000 and 150,000 persons are estimated to have been killed.

"It is making a slow, uneven, and incomplete transition from a military-dominated state with a state-administered economy toward democracy and an open market economy," the report says. The State Department, however, acknowledges that "there continued to be problems with excessive use of force by the security forces.