"We are looking into the legal issues and possibilities and have nothing to say right now," said Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.

Abbas, leader of the outlawed Palestinian Liberation Front and mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro, was captured by US forces in the Iraqi capital on Monday.

He had been sentenced in absentia in Italy to five life terms for his role in the hijacking, during which an elderly, wheelchair-bound American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered and thrown into the Mediterranean.

The Palestinian leadership has already said Abbas should be released under a 1995 immunity accord made between the Palestinians and the Israeli government. But US officials have said Abbas is not covered by the accord.

US leaders had said that one of the aims of the Iraq campaign was to find terrorists and the Pentagon spokeswoman said the detention of Abbas "is part of that".

SPACE.WIRE