Alberto Gonzales, nominated by President George W. Bush for US attorney-general, said yesterday he would "aggressively pursue" any American responsible for torture and abuse of detainees. But he defended administration policies that critics charge may have opened the door to such abuses.

Mr Gonzales, who was the president's chief lawyer for the past four years, sought to distance the White House from the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and from similar allegations regarding treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.