LONDON, May 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States could not really be the policeman for the world without upholding themselves to the same human rights standards they hold for others, a senior British expert on international law said on Tuesday.

    "It is, maybe, relevant for them (the Americans) to put a chapter in the human rights report on their own human rights facts both in the United States and abroad, to acknowledge there have been problems and then to see what kind of measures they are taking," the expert told Xinhua on the condition of anonymity, referring to the US annual promotion of human rights report that summarizes its actions in 101 countries to promote freedom and to end abuses.

    The United States might see a difficult position in its progress on human rights in the wake of the revelation of alleged Iraqi prisoners abuse by US troops in the country, the expert believed.

    "I don't think it (the US decision to delay the publication of the report) will make someone forget the prisoner abuse scandal," the expert said. "The depth and the breadth of the scandal is vast... People will continue to investigate it and the issue will not blow away."

    "It is clear that there have been abuses. The real question now is not whether there have been abuses or not... but what we are going to do about it, how it would be investigated, who is going to pay the price for it," the expert added.

    With America's reputation at its lowest ebb in years, the US State Department on Monday published its human rights report amid media reports that the publication had been delayed for 12 days because the "environment" had not been right.

    The British Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Tuesday that the US government has conceded that the prisoner abuse scandal wasa huge "cloud" over its mission to boost democracy and human rights around the world. Enditem