A Pentagon spokesman said eight major inquiries have been conducted into the prisoner abuse scandal, and three more reports are pending.

"Results show the actions depicted in the Abu Ghraib abuse photos were not the result of US policy," said the spokesman.

"A number of criminal investigations have also been conducted, and continue to be conducted, to ensure those who've engaged in misconduct are held accountable," he said.

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Berlin's Republican Lawyers' Association filed a criminal complaint in Berlin against top US officials on behalf of four Iraqis who were alleged to have been mistreated by US soldier.

The complaint names Rumsfeld, former CIA director George Tenet, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Steven Cambone, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, Brigadier General Janis L. Karpinski and other five military officers who served in Iraq.

They said they had chosen Germany because of its Code of Crimes Against International Law, introduced in 2002, which grants German courts universal jurisdiction in cases involving war crimes or crimes against humanity.

It also makes military or civilian commanders who fail to prevent their subordinates from committing such acts liable.

"We filed these cases here because there is simply no other place to go," CCR vice president Peter Weiss said in a statement.

"It is clear that the US government is not willing to open an investigation into these allegations against these officials," he said, adding that the US Congress had failed to seriously investigate the abuses.

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