Below is a Reuters article followed by photos.

By Kieran Murray

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (Reuters) - European and Latin American leaders condemned the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops on Friday and pushed Washington to work with the United Nations rather than go it alone in its war on terror.

Despite initial opposition from Britain, dozens of leaders at a summit in Mexico agreed to condemn the sexual abuse and humiliation of inmates by American soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Violent street protests erupted on Friday evening with demonstrators throwing rocks and metal bars at riot police, who fired tear gas canisters in response. They beat up and arrested at least six demonstrators in the fighting a few hundred yards from where summit leaders met.

Inside the meeting, Iraq was the big issue.

Photographs and videotapes of the abuse have battered President Bush's election-year approval ratings, alienated public sentiment in the Arab world and led even allies in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq to join protests.

"We express our abhorrence at recent evidence of the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraqi prisons. Such abuse is contrary to international law," the European Union, Latin American and Caribbean leaders said in a declaration at the end of their one-day summit.

"We energetically condemn all forms of abuse, torture and other cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment against people, including prisoners of war, wherever they occur," they said after hours of wrangling over the wording of the document.

Latin American nations wanted tougher language in condemning what they described as the torture of Iraqi inmates, but the EU blocked those efforts.

Cuba's government even likened the video and photo images of U.S. troops humiliating naked Iraqi prisoners to those of Nazi Germany. "Not since the dark days of Hitler ... has humanity observed images of such emotional impact," it said.

A bitter dispute over how strongly to condemn the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba foiled efforts to present the summit as a success story of two regions working together on international issues.

DEMANDS FOR STRONGER U.N.

The leaders did agree, however, to push for a reformed and stronger United Nations to lead the way in resolving conflicts instead of allowing individual nations to act alone -- a pointed reference to the United States, the world's remaining superpower.

"Multilateralism is an imperative of our times," said French President Jacques Chirac, a leading European opponent of the Iraq war. "One needs only to observe the threat that failed states carry for the world's equilibrium or the deadlocks entailed by unilateral action."

The U.S. occupation of Iraq faces fierce armed resistance, and the international outrage over the abuse of prisoners has put the Bush administration on the defensive.

The United States and its close ally Britain are trying to win U.N. approval for a new resolution laying out the powers of a new Iraqi caretaker government. France and Germany say the proposals are not specific enough.

Cuba and EU nations clashed throughout the summit in Mexico's western city of Guadalajara and, after failing to bridge their differences, ended up scrapping a proposal to condemn the U.S. embargo against the Communist-run island.

Latin American nations wanted to directly name the United States and the legislation it uses to enforce the embargo, but the Europeans argued for more general language. Cuba refused to accept the EU's "decaffeinated" version and it was withdrawn.

Cuba accused EU nations of acting like "a flock of sheep, subordinate to Washington."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=2OURBQTXPOORUCRBAELCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=5293499&pageNumber=1

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