Time for another forced regime change in Iraq?

Or should there be one in the US of A?

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has said that human rights abuses in Iraq today are as bad as those during the rule of Saddam Hussein.

In an interview with the UK's Observer newspaper, Mr Allawi said that Iraqis were being tortured and killed by secret police in secret bunkers.

He said militias operated with impunity inside the interior ministry and had infiltrated the police.

He urged action to stop "a disease" spreading throughout the government.

The BBC's Chris Xia says Mr Allawi's comments appear to be aimed at setting the agenda for the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

'Contagious'

"People are doing the same as (in) Saddam Hussein's time and worse," Mr Allawi told the newspaper.

"It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam.

"These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam Hussein, and now we are seeing the same things."

His remarks came two weeks after US troops discovered 170 apparently abused captives in a secret prison inside an interior ministry building in Baghdad.

He said that if urgent action was not taken "the disease infecting [the interior ministry] will become contagious and spread to all ministries and structures of Iraq's government".

He also warned of the danger of Iraq disintegrating in chaos.

"Iraq is the centrepiece of this region," he said. "If things go wrong, neither Europe nor the United States will be safe."

Mr Allawi was Iraq's first interim prime minister, but he failed to win January's election which brought the current Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, to power.

He has since formed a coalition to contest next month's parliamentary elections.