Rumsfeld Denies Cover-up Over 'war Hero'

The former defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, made a rare public appearance in Washington yesterday when he gave evidence to a congressional investigation into a fabricated Pentagon story about heroics in Afghanistan.

Mr Rumsfeld, who has dropped out of public sight since being sacked last November, denied personal responsibility in the Corporal Pat Tillman scandal and insisted he would not have taken part in a cover-up.

Cpl Tillman, a football star turned soldier, was killed by "friendly fire" but the Pentagon allowed stories to circulate about him dying in battle with the Taliban. The house oversight committee sees it as part of a wide culture of disinformation that has built up in the Pentagon during the Bush administration.

But Mr Rumsfeld, flanked by former senior Pentagon staff, told the committee: "I know that I would not engage in a cover-up. I know that no one in the White House suggested such a thing to me. I know that the gentlemen sitting next to me are men of enormous integrity and would not participate in something like that."

He did not explain why there was a five-week delay between the fabricated version of Cpl Tillman's death and the Pentagon admitting he had been killed by fire from US troops. He said he could not remember precisely how he had heard that Cpl Tillman was killed by friendly fire.

Earlier the vice-president, Dick Cheney, predicted to CNN that the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, would report progress when he briefed Congress in September. His report could prove pivotal in the White House and congressional confrontation over withdrawal of US troops. Mr Cheney said: "The reports I'm hearing from people whose views I respect indicate that the Petraeus plan is in fact producing results."

At least 67 people were killed and almost 100 wounded in two bombings in Baghdad yesterday, according to Iraqi police.