Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez

Washington, May 25 (Reuters): The Pentagon will replace army lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez as the top US military officer in Iraq, senior defence officials said today.

But they argued that the change was not triggered by the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.

General George Casey, Army vice chief of staff, has emerged as the top candidate to replace Sanchez in Baghdad in June or July, said the officials, who asked not to be identified.

“There has been no final decision on a replacement, but General Casey is a top candidate,” one official said. “This has absolutely nothing to do with Abu Ghraib,” added another defence official. “The secretary (defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld) is very mindful that the perception (of punishment) might arise. But it simply is not the case.”

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of US-run prisons in Iraq during the abuse, has been suspended as commander of the military police brigade at the heart of the scandal.

Seven US soldiers have been charged with physically and sexually abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib in a scandal that has inflamed the Arab world and undermined US efforts in the country before the handover on June 30 to an interim Iraqi government.

President George W. Bush praised Sanchez. “Rick Sanchez has done a fabulous job. He’s been there for a long time. His service has been exemplary,” Bush said in response to a question from reporters at the White House.

But defence analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, who has close connections to the Pentagon, said: “You’d have to be pretty naive to think that the problems with abuse of detainees had no impact at all on this decision.”

The defence officials offered no explanation other than that Sanchez had served the normal year-long rotation in Iraq.