LONDON, May 8: New allegations emerged on Saturday of British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, adding to the anger and disgust provoked by the behaviour of certain US soldiers in Iraq.

The scandal has been growing by the day in Britain, before the alarmed eyes of a public that is traditionally proud of its armed forces, despite its divisions over the justification for the invasion itself.

The centre-left Guardian quoted British military sources as saying "the sexual humiliation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors who do not know what they are doing."

It quoted one former British special forces officer as saying both US and British military intelligence soldiers had been trained in the technique, called R2I (resistance to interrogation).

For the third time in a week, the Daily Mirror tabloid published claims against members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, this time saying its soldiers had even made CDs of beatings in Iraq to keep as souvenirs. And the Independent newspaper quoted a former Iraqi prisoner, who alleged he was beaten on the neck, chest and genitals by soldiers from the same regiment.

The stream of allegations is likely to exacerbate the furore over the torture by US soldiers of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, which has undermined the position of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Mr Rumsfeld testified before Congress on Friday to the existence of "blatantly sadistic" pictures from Abu Ghraib and a US senator said cases of murder and rape were likely to emerge.

Britain's Mirror - a widely read paper that has traditionally supported the ruling Labour Party but which opposed the Iraq invasion and is disliked by the those close to Prime Minister Tony Blair - was the first to start revealing allegations about British troop conduct that are another blow to Mr Blair.

On May 1 the paper published photos appearing to show British soldiers kicking and urinating on an Iraqi prisoner, alongside graphic claims of abuse by two soldiers from Queen's Lancashire Regiment - one of the most experienced infantry units in the British army.

The Mirror's editor Piers Morgan was criticized for publishing the May 1 photos. But far from backing down, his paper has continued to reveal allegations of abuse in Iraq by Her Majesty's army.

On Friday it published testimony from an anonymous reservist who said he had seen four incidents of Iraqi prisoners being punched and kicked by members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.

And on Saturday it carried a front-page picture purportedly showing a member of the regiment photographing a bound captive with bloodied teeth in the back of an armoured personnel carrier.

"There are no rules out there," a man, known only as "Soldier D", was quoted as saying. "I saw the man dragged into the vehicle beaten up, kicked and punched... I took the picture as I opened the doors of the vehicle."

"You'd come back from Iraq and people wouldn't know what you've been through. If you had pictures you could show them," he was quoted as saying. "There was one CD going round our room with about 500 shots on it. Some were before and after pictures of beatings."

The centrist Independent on Saturday published what it said was the first eyewitness account of abuse by British soldiers. It quoted former Iraqi prisoner, Kifah Talah, 44, as saying he had been tortured and humiliated by up to eight soldiers at a time for three days. -AFP