The defence secretary has slammed "lurid" reporting of allegations that British troops may have mutilated the bodies of Iraqi combatants.

Answering questions in the Commons, Geoff Hoon said the Guardian newspaper had given undue prominence to the story.

The paper ran the claims across its front page on Monday on the basis of death certificates seen by its reporters.

However Hoon claimed it should have awaited the outcome of an ongoing official investigation before publishing the report.

"The headline could just have easily have been 'More false allegations against British troops'," he told MPs.

"The detail of the story did not bear out the rather lurid headline the Guardian editor had chosen to give it."

Military police officers are studying photographs of the bodies of insurgents killed as part of the peacekeeping operation in Iraq in the last year.

The original death certificates and part of a video film taken at Amara hospital by the relatives of the dead will also be looked at before any action is taken against troops.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed: "The military police are looking at the evidence. They have yet to commence a formal investigation."

A British army spokesman in Basra went further, describing the allegations as "absurd".

"Such claims are an insult to the whole British army and an attempt to stain the image of men who are putting their lives at risk every day to secure Iraq for the Iraqis," he said.