Baghdad, Feb. 7 (Reuters): US military police threw a mudwrestling party at a prison camp in Iraq and a woman who took part has been found guilty of indecent exposure and demoted, the US military said today.

At least three female guards stripped to their underwear and wrestled each other in a paddling pool full of mud in the grounds of Camp Bucca, the biggest US camp for detainees in Iraq, Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said.

Several guards who watched the wrestling have been reprimanded for failing to intervene. The party took place on October 30 last year, when one US military police battalion, the 160th, was about to hand over responsibility to another, the 105th.

Officers from both battalions were involved and photographs were taken. A prison guard found the photos sometime later and handed them over to the camp's commanders. 'It does not appear that alcohol was involved and there is no evidence to support suggestions of any type of sexual misconduct,' Johnson said.

'Detainees were nowhere in the vicinity and they had no possible way of seeing what occurred.' He said the incident was being investigated further.