WASHINGTON — President Bush (search) will conduct interviews to Arab news outlets on Wednesday in an effort to temper rising fury over images of American troops abusing Iraqi prisoners.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday night that Bush will conduct two 10-minute interviews with the U.S.-sponsored Al-Hurra television network and the Arab network Al Arabiya.

"This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and unacceptable," McClellan said.

"These images do not represent what America stands for, nor do they represent the high standards of conduct that our military is committed to upholding," he continued. "What occurred was wrong, and it will not be tolerated by America."

He declined to say why Bush will not interview with the Arab network Al-Jazeera (search).

The Bush administration has promised to bring U.S. troops having anything to do with the abuse of Iraqi prisoners to justice.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (search) called the allegations "deeply disturbing," saying the reports of the abuse at Abu Ghraib (search), Baghdad's main prison where stories of Saddam Hussein's torture abound, are "totally unacceptable and un-American."

"I have no doubt that we will take these charges and allegations most seriously," he continued.

McClellan said the purpose of the president's interviews will be to express Americans' outrage over the reports to the Arab world: "This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and unacceptable," he said.

"These images do not represent what America stands for, nor do they represent the high standards of conduct that our military is committed to upholding," he continued. "What occurred was wrong, and it will not be tolerated by America."

McClellan reiterated that the actions were carried out by "a few individuals" and said he still could not determine when Rumsfeld had informed Bush of the allegations.

He said it was sometime after January, as the allegations were making their way up the Pentagon chain of command.

McClellan spoke of the effect the abuses could have on U.S. relations with the Arab world.

"It certainly does not help matters, but at the same time, it does not represent what 99 percent of the men and women in our military stand for," he said.

Lastly, he declined to say whether the United States would accept an international investigation into the abuses, saying the Pentagon already is studying the matter.

On March 20, criminal charges were filed against six military police officers. As many as three of the six cases have been referred to military trial, and others are in various stages of preliminary hearings.

In addition to the criminal cases, seven others — all military police — have been given noncriminal punishment — six got letters of reprimand. Some of the seven are members of the Army Reserve.

Later the Army disclosed that there have been 35 U.S. military criminal investigations into allegations of prisoner abuse and deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan since December 2002. Of those, 10 investigations into deaths and 10 assault inquiries are under way, Maj. Gen. Donald Ryder (search), the Army's Provost Marshal, told reporters. He visited the Iraqi prison system last fall.

Ryder said that in addition to the pending cases, one homicide case has been completed. Another official said the U.S. soldier who was found guilty in that case was discharged from the service, but the official did not say whether that was in Iraq or Afghanistan. Another official said the soldier killed the prisoner with a rock. Another homicide case that is not yet complete involves a CIA contractor.

Ryder also said 12 other deaths at U.S.-run prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan were found to be of undetermined cause or of natural causes. Another death was ruled a justifiable homicide.