GENEVA, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The United States admitted on Monday that "some U.S. individuals" had mistreated detainees held in Iraq and at Guantanamoas Bay, but said it was investigating those abuses and acting to make things better.

    "Some individuals have committed abuses against detainees being held as a result of our current armed conflict in Iraq and against al-Qaida and its affiliates," said a U.S. delegation present at a public session of the UN Committee against Torture.

    The Geneva-based Committee was having its first public examination of the U.S. record on preventing torture and abuse since President George W. Bush unleashed a "war on terror".

    "The United States investigates all allegations of abuse vigorously and when they are substantiated, holds accountable the perpetrators," the U.S. delegation said.

    "All governments are imperfect because they are made up of human beings who are, by nature, imperfect. One of the great strengths of our nation is its ability to recognize its failures, deal with them, and act to make things better," the delegation said.

    During the two day review, which was held Friday and Monday, the 10-member Committee asked written and oral questions on topics ranging from Washington's interpretation of the absolute global ban on torture to its interrogation methods in prisons such as AbuGhraib in Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    It also discussed a periodic report of the U.S. on its efforts to give effect to the provisions of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

    Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Stimson, one member of the U.S. delegation, told experts in the Committee that the United States had failed in its duty to protect detainees in Iraq.

    "We feel terrible about what happened to these Iraqi detainees," Stimson said. "We didn't do that (protect them) and that was wrong."

    Barry Lowenkron, assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor, said the United States had had a long tradition of combating torture.

    "What had happened at Abu Ghraib was inexcusable and indefensible. the government had carried out over 600 investigations and over 250 individuals had been held accountable for detainee abuse, and the investigations and charges continued,"he said.

    State Department legal adviser John B. Bellinger III, head of the U.S. delegation, said that most of the "regrettable incidents or allegations" of detainee mistreatment took place several years ago.

    While acutely aware of the innumerable allegations that had appeared in the press and in other fora about various U.S. abuses, Bellinger asked the anti-torture Committee not to believe every allegation it had ever heard.

    "Allegations about the U.S. military or intelligence activities had become so hyperbolic as to be absurd, and the Committee should not lose sight of the fact that those incidents were not systemic," he claimed.

    The U.S. delegation denied changing the definition of torture governing U.S. obligations under the torture ban Convention from what the U.S. accepted upon ratification of the Convention.

    It also denied transferring prisoners to countries where they could be interrogated by cruel means.

    The committee's final report on the United States is expected to be released on May 19. Enditem