The US Defense Department has approved a new policy directive governing interrogations, to tighten controls over the questioning of terror suspects and other prisoners by American soldiers, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Under the directive, the Army intends to ensure that interrogation techniques are approved, up to the highest levels in the Pentagon, that interrogators are properly trained and that personnel in the field are required to report any abuses, Army officials were quoted as saying.

The directive was part of a wider effort by the Pentagon to review the treatment of prisoners in military custody and was signed without any public announcement last Thursday by Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England.

The eight-page directive, "DoD (Department of Defense) Intelligence Interrogations, Detainee Debriefings, and Tactical Questioning," assigns responsibilities for interrogation activities to senior Pentagon civilians and commanders; establishes requirements for reporting violations of the policy; and requires that Central Intelligence Agency interrogators follow Pentagon guidelines when questioning military prisoners.

It also reaffirms that military working dogs may not be used in interrogations and that military police may assist interrogators by providing information about detainees' behavior, but may not participate in the interrogations themselves.

"Acts of physical or mental torture are prohibited," says the directive.

Some Pentagon officials said the interrogations directive was issued now in part to mollify critics in Congress.

The directive will allow the Army to issue a long-delayed field manual for interrogators that is supposed to incorporate the lessons gleaned from the prisoner-abuse scandals last year, the Times report said.

While England's approval of the interrogations directive advances that part of the overall policy, a fierce debate still embroils another major detention-policy document under revision, Directive 2310.01, "DoD program for Enemy Prisoners of War and Other Detainees," the report said.

The second directive, governing all aspects of prisoner detentions, not just interrogation methods, has caused sharp debate within the Bush administration.

Vice President Dick Cheney's new chief of staff, David S. Addington, had continued to press senior Pentagon officials to eliminate language from the Geneva Conventions prohibiting "cruel, " "humiliating," and "degrading" treatment, two Pentagon officials were quoted as saying.

Source: Xinhua