Washington ? Issuing its first punishments so far, the U.S. military announced the reprimand of seven people Monday for their involvement in the abuse of detainees in Iraq as the Pentagon moved to contain the growing political and diplomatic damage caused by graphic photographs and accounts of the prisoner mistreatment.

President Bush urged Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to ensure that those involved in what he called “appalling acts” were punished, and a White House spokesman said Bush “wanted to make sure appropriate action is being taken against those responsible.”

Members of Congress also pushed for swift action. The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., summoned Pentagon officials to face his panel on Tuesday.

“These allegations of mistreatment, if proven, represent an appalling and totally unacceptable breach of military conduct that could undermine much of the courageous work and sacrifice by our forces in the war on terror,” Warner said.

The seven officers and noncommissioned personnel cited by the U.S. military command in Iraq were not demoted or discharged, nor did they participate in the abuse, but officials said they were responsible for setting standards. The Pentagon recommended criminal charges in March against six other military police for their treatment of the prisoners. The military says the prisoners were abused while in a high security cellblock at Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad and other detention facilities.

A Pentagon spokesman said that “additional decisions” on charges against prison guards could follow soon.

Military personnel are accused of beating and sodomizing prisoners, threatening electrocution and forcing hooded and naked prisoners to assume sexually suggestive positions for photographs. In several photographs, U.S. soldiers posed with the hooded prisoners.

The spectacle of those pictures, which have been repeatedly broadcast worldwide, may have dealt a debilitating blow to U.S. efforts to improve security in Iraq while also undermining the authority of U.S. forces there. President Bush and other senior administration officials have condemned the alleged acts of abuse, which have caused an uproar in Iraq and throughout the Arab world.

“The United States already had a huge perception problem in the Arab World,” said Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “This is only going to reinforce the belief that the United States is anti-Arab and anti-Muslim, whether it’s true or not.”

The U.S. military has responded to the crisis by announcing that five separate investigations are now under way to examine the treatment of combat detainees captured in Iraq and as part of the broader U.S. war on terrorism.