WASHINGTON - The United States sought Thursday to stem Muslim anger over reports of the desecration of a Koran at its 'war on terror' detention camp, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling such disrespect "abhorrent" and promising to punish any offenders.
But the top US military officer, General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said no evidence had been found yet to back allegations that a Koran had been put down a toilet at the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba.
Rice used an appearance before a Senate committee to make a special statement "directly to Muslims in America and throughout the world" on the reported incidents.
"Disrespect for the holy Koran is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be, tolerated by the United States," she said.
"We honor the sacred books of all the world's great religions. Disrespect for the holy Koran is abhorrent to us all."
Muslims have been enraged by a report that Guantanamo interrogators placed copies of the Koran in a toilet to unsettle prisoners.
Seven people have been killed in protests in Afghanistan and there has also been criticism from Pakistan, a staunch US ally in the war on terror.
And the Saudi government on Thursday urged the US government to carry out a rapid inquiry, saying that if allegations were found to be true, measures should be taken to dissuade against any similar incident in the future.
Rice said US military authorities were fully investigating the allegations. "If they are proven true we will take appropriate action."
"During the past few days, we have heard from our Muslim friends around the world about their concerns on this matter. We understand and we share their concerns. Sadly, some people have lost their lives in violent demonstrations.
"I am asking that all our friends around the world reject incitement to violence by those who would mischaracterize our intentions."
Rice said religious freedom was one of the founding principles of the United States and something taken very seriously by Americans. "Guaranteeing religious rights is of great personal importance to the president and to me," she said.
The US magazine Newsweek last week cited sources as saying that investigators had uncovered a case that interrogators, trying to rattle prisoners, flushed a Koran down a toilet and led a detainee around with a collar and a dog leash.
Pentagon officials said the allegation was first made by a lawyer of a detainee who was recently repatriated to Kuwait.
But the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told a Pentagon press conference no evidence had been found to back the claims.
Myers said the commander of the US Southern Command, General Bantz Craddock, has been in Guantanamo "digging into this issue to see if there was a time when the Koran was not respected."
"They have looked through the interrogation logs, and they cannot confirm yet that there was ever the case of the toilet incident except in one case, a log entry that they still have to confirm, where a detainee was reported by a guard to be ripping pages out of a Koran and putting them in a toilet to stop it up as a protest," Myers said.
Reports about the Koran incident ignited deadly riots in Afghanistan that spread Thursday from eastern cities to Kabul for the first time in a major challenge to the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
Myers said the US commander in Afghanistan had reported that the violence was "not necessarily the result of the allegations about disrespect for the Koran but more tied up in the political process and the reconciliation process that President Karzai and his cabinet is conducting."
Seven people have been killed and at least 76 injured during three days of protests, all in clashes between protesters and security forces in Jalalabad and other towns east of Kabul.
Enraged Afghans shouting "death to America" poured into the streets of Kabul on Thursday.

05/12/2005 21:49 GMT