US President George W Bush has told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that he supports the investigation to find out the person responsible for taunting Saddam Hussein and recording his execution on a cell-phone camera.

White House spokesman Tony Snow, who gave this information on Thursday, said, "President Bush said that it was the right thing to do to investigate the taping and behaviour at the execution of Saddam Hussein. And the prime minister agreed, saying that the political parties were pained at the filming and the release, and they are looking at punishing those responsible."

According to a report from Baghdad, Iraqi authorities are questioning at least two guards suspected of involvement in the taunting and filming.

President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki spoke for nearly two hours and also discussed options for the proposed new US-Iraq policy, which the President prefers to call 'a new way forward'.

Snow says both men define winning the same way -- the establishment of an Iraqi government that can sustain, govern and defend itself.

He is expected to announce that new way forward in a nationwide address sometime at the end of this month.