The US set out a bleak picture of human rights violations throughout the world on Tuesday in a report that highlights the mounting difficulties of President George W. Bush’s “freedom agenda”.

The US human rights report for 2007, presented on Tuesday by Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, notes “widespread, severe human rights abuses” in Iraq, “a deadly insurgency [and] weak governmental and traditional institutions” in Afghanistan, and violations in countries both allied with and opposed to the US.