Washington ? Facing international criticism for American abuse of Iraqi prisoners, the Bush administration is highlighting its efforts to advance human rights and democracy in 101 countries, Iraq included.

The State Department on Monday released its second annual report on the U.S. government’s activities to promote freedom of the press and religion, foster vibrant, stable democracies, and halt torture and child labor, among other abuses.

The report was to have been released May 5, during the same week when much of the world was reacting with indignation to the disclosure that Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody were being mistreated.

The State Department withheld the report in hopes that additional time would create a more receptive climate for the chronicling of American good deeds overseas.

But Secretary of State Colin Powell said the prisoner abuse issue was a key item in his weekend discussions with foreign leaders at an international economic conference in Jordan.

“In their disappointment about America right now, I told them, ‘Watch America, watch how we deal with this, watch how America will do the right thing,”‘ Powell said.

Powell, who delivered the commencement address Monday at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., said he had promised other leaders “multiple investigations” to get to the bottom of the scandal.

In Iraq, the report said, the United States, working with other countries and international organizations, has sought “to address the effects of decades of political repression and human rights violations.

“The U.S. human rights and democracy strategy has promoted Iraqi efforts to account for past atrocities, prevent future human rights abuses and support institutions conducive to a successful transition to democracy,” it said.

Lorne Craner, the State Department’s top human rights official, said the foreign reaction to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal had not been uniformly negative.

Some Web sites in China have noted that American leaders have apologized for the wrongdoing and have not interfered with the freedom of the U.S. media to report developments, Craner told reporters.

He said the Abu Ghraib incidents had not robbed the United States of the moral authority to expose excesses by undemocratic governments.

“Who would be better off if we self-consciously turned inward and ignored human rights abuses elsewhere — in places like Burma and Zimbabwe and Belarus?” Craner asked as he released the report.

The report attempts to show what the administration has been doing in response to rights abuses outlined in an annual country-by-country study.

The most recent edition of that study was issued in late February. Both reports are mandated by Congress.