May 3 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said the U.S. military should take ``appropriate action'' in response to the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Bush called Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this morning to discuss the mistreatment, and the military will pursue criminal charges against those responsible, McClellan said.

Photographs taken by some of the U.S. soldiers, including those depicting naked prisoners piled up and soldiers standing nearby, were broadcast Wednesday on Viacom Inc.'s CBS News program ``60 Minutes II.''

``The images are appalling and there is no excuse,'' McClellan told reporters.

Muslim countries from Jordan to Malaysia have condemned the alleged mistreatment and urged action against those responsible, according to Agence France-Presse. The alleged abuses of Iraqi prisoners are ``war crimes,'' Jordanian government spokeswoman Asma Khodr said, AFP reported.

The impact of the photographs will ``make it more difficult for us to continue in our process of building the trust and confidence of the people of Iraq,'' U.S. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said.

The military has reprimanded six U.S. commissioned and non- commissioned officers over the charges, while a seventh received a lesser letter of criticism, Kimmitt said. Six other soldiers are being criminally investigated for involvement in the alleged abuse.

The U.S. will also conduct a comprehensive review of prisons in Iraq, McClellan said.

Muslim Soldiers

U.S. Army General John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. forces in the Middle East, Friday called for Muslim countries to contribute soldiers to Iraq to help stabilize the country, saying the occupation needs a more diverse participation. About 100 of the 150,000 U.S.-led soldiers in Iraq are from countries with a significant Muslim population, according to the Coalition Provisional Authority.

The coalition faces insurgencies in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf and the Sunni Muslim town of Fallujah. Iraqi Human Rights Minister Abdel Basset Turki has resigned over the U.S.-led offensives on those two cities, AFP reported today, citing an unidentified ministry spokesman.

``The images going around the world have been damaging,'' United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said Sunday. ``I hope they will take a strong and firm stand to ensure that those kinds of activities are not repeated, because it does do damage, as you can see from reactions in the region.''

The U.K.'s Daily Mirror newspaper has published photographs of what it alleges are abuses by U.K. soldiers, though the London- based Times today said the photographs are probably fakes.

Reprimands

The U.S. announcement of the reprimands came after an investigation ordered by Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, who commands U.S. forces in Iraq, into the mistreatment of Iraqis held at the prison.

The reprimands are private and details of the names or ranks of the officers won't be released, Kimmitt said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

The letters reprimand ``those people for their culpability in the command responsibilities of this organization,'' Kimmitt said. ``In an officer's career, it's very, very serious. If it's filed in their permanent file, it could certainly be seen by any future boards for promotion, boards for selection.''

`Disgusted'

``I would suspect that any people that see these pictures will be as appalled as we are, will be just as disgusted as we are,'' Kimmitt said. ``We've got to demonstrate to the people of Iraq that we're taking swift action and that we're taking appropriate action.''

Kimmitt also said the U.S. military must also show Iraqis that ``this does not in any way reflect 125, 150-thousand coalition soldiers that are walking up and down the streets, trying to make this a free country.''

U.S. Senator Joseph Biden, senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday widespread distribution of the pictures of the abuse in Europe and the Arab world means the U.S. must act quickly to bring those responsible to justice.

``This is the single most significant undermining act that's occurred in a decade in that region of the world, in terms of our standing, in my view,'' Biden, of Delaware, said on the ``Fox News Sunday'' show.

Some soldiers assigned to Abu Ghraib said harsh treatment of prisoners was encouraged by military intelligence as a way to get information from prisoners, according to a New Yorker magazine article about the abuses.

The human rights group Amnesty International on its Web site called for an impartial investigation and said it has received reports of ``torture or other ill-treatment'' by U.S. and U.K. troops in the past year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Torday in London at ptorday@bloomberg.net . Bill Small in Washington at Or bsmall@bloomberg.net