Likening the looting to a riot after a football game, Rumsfeld said, "No one likes it. No one allows it. It happens and it is unfortunate, and to the extent it can be stopped, it should be stopped," he said.

"To the extent it happens in a war zone, it's difficult to stop," he said.

While the museum and other cultural and archaeological sites around the country were not targeted in coalition air strikes, Rumsfeld said that, to his knowledge, US ground troops were not encouraged to give the museum special protection.

The museum, which housed one of the world's great collections of artifacts from early Mesopotamian civilizations, was ransacked by looters on Friday in the upheaval following the entry of US troops into the city.

Rumsfeld noted that the United States was offering rewards for the return of items from the museum, or assistance in their recovery.

"I suspect we'll find that a number of things were hidden prior to the conflict," he said, observing that museum administrators would likely secure their collections in the face of a well-telegraphed conflict.

Critics have faulted US forces for failing to intervene in the extensive pillaging of the capital and other Iraqi cities after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime collapsed.

General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, argued that the decision to take the capital without waiting for additional forces to arrive resulted in fewer casualties.

"The best way to ensure fewer casualties on the coalition side and fewer civilian casualties is to have combat operations proceed as quickly as possible, and not prolong them," he said.

SPACE.WIRE