The alleged abuse occurred in August 2003 at the American base in the eastern town of Gardez, 60 miles south of the capital, Kabul, an embassy statement said. U.S. officials had learned of the allegations from the media, it said.

"The U.S. military has launched an immediate investigation," the statement said

The New York Times quoted the former police colonel, Sayed Nabi Siddiqui, 47, as saying he was subjected to sexual abuse and taunting and sleep deprivation.

"To the best of our knowledge this is the first time anyone in the military chain of command or the United States Embassy has heard of this alleged mistreatment," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said in the statement.

"We are not aware of the existence of any photos of the alleged incident," he added.

Khalilzad said he was confident the military's investigation would be thorough and lead to "appropriate action" if the allegations are true.

On Tuesday, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan said the military had made "very significant changes" to the way it handles prisoners in Afghanistan after alleged abuse, including the deaths of three prisoners.

Lt. Gen. David Barno said the military had investigated "challenges and problems" at outlying bases and that it decided to transfer suspects to the main holding facility at Bagram, north of the capital, more quickly.

Barno made no mention of Gardez or the allegations made by the police officer.

He also rejected an Afghan human rights group's demand for access to the prisoners at U.S. jails in the country to make sure they're not suffering the same kind of abuses alleged in Iraq, saying monitoring by the International Committee of the Red Cross was sufficient.

The New York Times quoted Siddiqui as saying he was wrongly detained on July 15 after he reported police corruption and that someone then accused him of being a member of the Taliban. He said he was held for about 40 days at three different U.S. bases: at Gardez, Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, and Bagram.

He described being humiliated repeatedly during his detention in all three places, although the worst alleged abuses were at Gardez, the report said.

The U.S. military opened a formal investigation into the deaths of two Afghans at Bagram's closely guarded jail in December 2002, but says it has had trouble gathering evidence and has yet to release results.

Military autopsies found that both men died of blunt force injuries.

A third Afghan died last June at a holding facility in eastern Kunar province.

A U.S. intelligence official said last week that the CIA inspector general is investigating that death because it involved an independent contractor working for the agency.

The U.S. military views Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners as "unlawful combatants," and has held hundreds captured in the war that ousted the Taliban in late 2001 for more than two years without formal charge or access to lawyers.

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