The US Defense Department announced Friday that it is creating an office to deal with detainee affairs, in the wake of the revelation of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib in Baghdad.

The Office of Detainee Affairs was being created under a directive signed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday, Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary for policy, told a news briefing at the Pentagon.

The office is to report to the secretary via the undersecretaryfor policy and will be the single focal point in communicating with the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) on behalf of the department, he said.

The Pentagon created the Office of Detainee Affairs after it was sharply criticized for having ignored ICRC reports that raised warning flags about prisoner abuse at the Ghraib prison long before abuse videos and pictures surfaced.

"We want to have a system to elevate their concerns to key policymakers as responsively as possible," Henry said.

Since May this year, Rumsfeld has testified at four different hearings and the deputy secretary or undersecretaries of the Defense Department at 12 different hearings over the abuse scandal,he said.

Source: Xinhua