GENEVA (AP):

Torture in Iraq may be worse now than under Saddam Hussein, with militias, terrorist groups - and government forces - disregarding rules on the humane treatment of prisoners, the top United Nations (U.N.) anti-torture expert said yesterday.

Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special investigator on torture, was presenting a report on detainee conditions at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, as well as to brief the U.N. Human Rights Council, the global body's top rights watchdog, on torture worldwide.

Reports from Iraq indicate that torture "is totally out of hand," he said. "The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein."

Nowak added, "That means something, because the torture methods applied under Saddam Hussein were the worst you could imagine."

Some allegations of torture were undoubtedly credible, with government forces among the perpetrators, he said, citing "very serious allegations of torture within the official Iraqi detention centres."

A report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq's Human Rights office cited worrying evidence of torture, unlawful detentions, growth of sectarian militias and death squads, and a rise in "honour killings" of women.

Lawlessness

Widespread lawlessness swept the Iraqi capital Baghdad yesterday with kidnappings, deadly attacks on police, the discovery of more mutilated death squad victims and a brazen daylight bank heist in central Baghdad by men dressed as Iraqi soldiers.

As car bombings continued throughout the country, the Defence Ministry warned that insurgents were using unwitting kidnap victims as suicide bombers - seizing them, booby-trapping their cars without their knowledge, then releasing them only to remotely blow the cars up when they made it to a checkpoint.

Nowak, who has yet to make an official visit to Iraq, based his comments on interviews with people during a visit to Amman, Jordan, and other sources.

Meanwhile, the United States is itself grappling with the issue of torture.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton joined a chorus of critics of Bush administration proposals for treating suspected terrorists, saying it would be unnecessary and wrong to give broad approval to torture.

"If you go around passing laws that legitimise a violation of the Geneva Convention and institutionalise what happened at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, we're going to be in real trouble," he said.