May 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld didn't approve any operations that led to the interrogation methods used on Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison, the Defense Department said.

The denial was made in response to an article on the New Yorker magazine Web site, which said Rumsfeld had approved expanding an interrogation program, which had been used in Afghanistan to hunt for al-Qaeda.

Rumsfeld faced calls for his resignation from Democrats in the Congress after the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison exposed in a series of pictures. Rumsfeld and U.S. military investigators have said the mistreatment was the work of a few undisciplined soldiers.

``No responsible official of the Department of Defense approved any program that could conceivably have been intended to result in such abuses as witnessed in the recent photos and videos,'' spokesman Lawrence DiRita said in a statement on the defense department's Web Site.

The New Yorker article -- to be published in the New Yorker's May 24 edition -- said Rumsfeld had approved a wider program in order to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. It cited unnamed current and former intelligence officials.

``Assertions apparently made in the latest New Yorker article on Abu Ghraib and the abuse of Iraqi detainees are outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture,'' the Department of Defense statement said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tan Hwee Ann in the Singapore newsroom at hatan@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 15, 2004 22:54 EDT