A change in regime has not resulted in a halt to Iraqi torture, a report said.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch asserted that torture remained widespread in Iraqi prisons. The group said Iraqi interrogators have beaten detainees with cables and hoses and used electric shocks.

"The Iraqi interim government is not keeping its promises to honor and respect basic human rights," Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the group's Middle East and North Africa division, said. "Sadly, the Iraqi people continue to suffer from a government that acts with impunity in its treatment of detainees."

The group said authorities also starved detainees in prisons. In many facilities, detainees were forced to stand in crowded cells.

Human Rights Watch based the report on interviews with 90 Iraqi prisoners between July and October of 2004. The report said that of the 90, 72 of the former detainees claimed they had been tortured or abused.

The report said detainees said they underwent electric shocks to "sensitive parts of the body." HRW said detainees were kept blindfolded and handcuffed for several days.

"In several cases, the detainees suffered what may be permanent physical disability," the report said