Coalition forces have captured at least 7,300 prisoners of war in Iraq, US military officials said on Wednesday.

In a briefing at the Pentagon from the US military's main PoW camp in Umm Qasr in southern Iraq, the colonel in charge of the facility said planners had been prepared to take up to 50,000 prisoners.

"We developed a capitulation strategy too... However, at this point in time we have seen very few capitulate," Colonel John Della Jacono said. "I think a lot of the soldiers are just leaving. There have been a lot of reports of tanks and positions just abandoned."

In the 1991 Gulf War, the US had captured about 83,000 Iraqis.

The 7,300 prisoners are currently spread around the country, with about 236 being treated at field hospitals or on the US hospital ship Comfort in the Gulf.

Of the prisoners now held at Umm Qasr, three or four are believed to be high-ranking Iraqi military officers.

They will all eventually be processed at the Umm Qasr camp, where lawyers will shortly begin determining their status and how they will be handled by US forces.

"Once they are vetted they are either fully accorded EPW (enemy prisoner of war) status… or they might at a future point and time be turned over for criminal prosecution for a crime committed against the coalition or against the Iraqi people," the colonel said.

Most of the prisoners at Umm Qasr have been through initial interrogation and some have given some basic information on the Iraqi military, he said.

Some Prisoners to Be Repatriated

Once through the tribunal process, the US government will need to determine when and how to repatriate some of the Iraqis.

Col Della Jacono said once there was an interim government the US government would turn over an unspecified number of the Iraqi prisoners.

Other officials said earlier the US planned to conduct trials of Iraqis alleged to have committed war crimes against American forces.

Officials from the Pentagon and State Department have said the US does not intend to turn to an international tribunal to carry out the proceedings.

Col Della Jacono said the camp in Umm Qasr would be the final destination of the PoWs.

The US has no plans to send them to a detention facility at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds captured in Afghanistan are being held.