The White House sought on Saturday to minimise damage from new revelations about US personnel mishandling the Quran at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison, accusing a few people of violating policy and the media of blowing "isolated incidents" out of proportion.

It was the administration's latest broadside against the press over abuses at Guantanamo. Last month, the White House attacked Newsweek and went so far as to ask the magazine to help repair damage to America's image.

The US military on Friday released details about five cases in which the Islamic holy book was kicked, stepped on and soaked in water.

In one case, a guard's urine splashed onto a detainee and his Quran. Southern Command said a guard urinated near an air vent and "the wind blew his urine through the vent" and onto a detainee and his Quran.

"It is unfortunate that some have chosen to take out of context a few isolated incidents by a few individuals without making clear the policies and practices of the overwhelming vast majority, the 99.9 percent, of our military personnel," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

McClellan said he was referring to "some media coverage and some commentary."

"There were three times as many confirmed incidents of (Quran) abuse by detainees, a number which were far worse than the few isolated incidents of mishandling by a few individuals that violated military policies and practices," McClellan added.

The White House's harsh response followed President Bush's blunt dismissal last week of an Amnesty International report which described the US detention centre in Guantanamo as a gulag and said the United States was responsible for an upsurge in human rights violations around the world. Bush called the allegations "absurd"