Senate and House of Representatives leaders in the US will see more images of abuse of Iraqi prisoners being abused at the hands of the American military.
US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld warned last week the images would be more disturbing than those already seen and could make the scandal more devastating.
The images will be available for several hours to lawmakers - though not staff - in secure rooms at the Capitol. Vice President Dick Cheney said the Pentagon had to consider "people's rights and the ability to be able to prosecute" in deciding whether more images would be released publicly.
"We wouldn't want, as a result of the release of pictures and the mistreatment of that kind of information, to allow guilty parties off the hook, so that they couldn't be prosecuted," he said in an interview on Fox News.
Today's hearing follows yesterday's questioning of Maj Gen Antonio Taguba who investigated the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. He told the Senate Armed Services Committee that responsibility for the activities at Abu Ghraib prison went to the top of the US military but that there was no evidence that senior officers ordered the abuse.
