Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski and other officers in her brigade were faulted by army investigators for paying too little attention to the prison's day-to-day operations and not acting strongly enough to discipline soldiers under her command for violating standard procedures.

Karpinski's suspension, which has not been announced by the army, was the latest in a series of actions against officers and enlisted soldiers implicated in the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

In an interview on MSNBC Monday night, Karpinski said she has been told of her suspension by "several sources, but I have nothing in writing." The paperwork will cite the reason for her suspension, she said.

Meanwhile, US President George Bush Monday called for the demolition of the infamous prison.

"Under the dictator (Saddam Hussein), prisons like Abu Ghraib were symbols of death and torture.

"That same prison became a symbol of disgraceful conduct by a few American troops who dishonored our country and disregarded our values," Bush said in a speech at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

America will pay for a new maximum security facility, he said.

"When that prison is completed, detainees at Abu Ghraib will be relocated. Then, with the approval of the Iraqi government, we will demolish the Abu Ghraib prison as a fitting symbol of Iraq's new beginning."

A new beginning however looks bleak as violence continued across Iraq.

In Najaf, seven people were killed and 45 wounded in fighting yesterday in Iraq's central holy, where a mortar round exploded inside Shia's holiest shrine, medics said.

The upper part of one of the main gold-covered gates leading to the tomb of revered Shia Imam Ali was damaged and rubble strewn on the blood-stained floor of the shrine, an AFP correspondent said.

"We have seven killed and 45 wounded, including 10 injured at the shrine," said medics at Najaf's Hakim hospital.

In Kirkuk, a senior politician representing Iraq's minority Turkmen population was assassinated by gunmen late on Monday as he left his office in the tense Iraqi city, police said.

Ahmed Najm al-Din, one of the leaders of the Turkmen Union Party, was shot dead in a targeted drive-by shooting as he was leaving his party's headquarters after dark, police said.

In Baghdad, a US soldier was killed and four others wounded in a rocket attack on a coalition base northwest of Baghdad, the US military said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the US is searching for a replacement for Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the top US commander in Iraq, a senior US defence official said, while strongly rejecting any link to the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Seven soldiers have been charged over humiliation of naked detainees, who were seen in photos and videos that drew international condemnation. One has been jailed for a year but investigations have been started to see if the mistreatment was approved by senior officers.

"He's been there 13 months," said the official. "You have to be looking for a replacement for him like you do for every other soldier."

Karpinski, who has returned to the United States, has not been charged with an offense. Being suspended from her command does not mean she has been relieved of command, so technically she could be reinstated, although the intensity of the international furor over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse makes that highly unlikely, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.