Washington ? American military commanders did not impose curfews, halt looting or order Iraqis back to work after Saddam Hussein’s regime fell because U.S. policymakers were reluctant to declare U.S. troops an occupying force, says an internal Army review examined by The Associated Press.

As a result, the Bush administration’s first steps at reconstruction in Iraq were severely hampered, creating a power vacuum that others quickly moved to fill and a growing mistrust on the part of ordinary Iraqis, the report said.

Since those first days, the U.S. effort in Iraq has been hampered by a growing insurgency with persistent and deadly attacks against U.S. forces.

The review, a postwar self-evaluation by the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), said the political decision to call the U.S. forces that arrived in Baghdad “liberators” instead of “occupying forces” left the division’s officers uncertain about their legal authority in postwar Baghdad and other cities. Under international law, the report says, the troops were indeed an occupation force and had both rights and responsibilities.

“Because of the refusal to acknowledge occupier status, commanders did not initially take measures available to occupying powers, such as imposing curfews, directing civilians to return to work, and controlling the local governments and populace. The failure to act after we displaced the regime created a power vacuum, which others immediately tried to fill,” says the report.

The report, marked “For Official Use Only,” was obtained by the AP, the Washington security think tank Globalsecurity.Org and other outlets. A spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division, Maj. Darryl Wright, characterized it as a candid effort to find ways to improve the division the next time it is called to fight. Its authors are not identified.

In many ways, it mirrors recent criticisms by Jay Garner, the retired American general who briefly headed the first occupation government in Iraq. Garner said in a BBC interview aired Wednesday that the military did not act quickly enough to restore law and order and key services in Baghdad, and should have tried harder to win support from the Iraqi people.