The father of Nick Berg, the American beheaded in Iraq, directly blamed President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday for his son's death.

"My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this," Berg said in an interview with radio station KYW-AM two days after a video showing the execution of his son was shown on an Islamist Web site.

Danish army medics in Iraq saw two Iraqi prisoners at a British field hospital, who had been beaten, one of them to death, the Danish Defense Ministry said on May 14. The incident was reported to British officials in September. In this photo, a group of protestors from the organization 'US Out' recreate a prisoner abuse photograph in front of the home of Secretary of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on May 13. Reuters photo

In the interview from outside his home in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a seething Michael Berg also said his 26-year-old son, a civilian contractor, probably would have felt positive, even about his executioners, until the last minute.

"I am sure that he only saw the good in his captors until the last second of his life," Berg said. "They did not know what they were doing. They killed their best friend."

Asked to respond to Berg's comments about the president, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, "The Berg family is going through a very difficult period and they remain in our thoughts and prayers."

Meanwhile, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge Bush in the November election, said he had spoken to Michael Berg to express sympathy. "I know as a father how I would feel if it were one of my daughters or stepsons. I think every American is pained by what is going on."

Asked if Bush had also called Nicholas Berg's family, McClellan said he had not but pointed to the president's public expressions of condolence to the family.

Michael Berg's criticism came amid finger-pointing between Berg's family, U.S. military officials and Iraqi police over the young businessman's imprisonment before his execution.

Berg rejected U.S. government claims that his son had never been held by American authorities in Iraq. The Iraqi police chief in the city of Mosul has also contradicted statements by the U.S.-led coalition concerning the younger Berg's detention.

'FBI CAME TO MY HOUSE'

"I have a written statement from the State Department in Baghdad ... saying that my son was being held by the military," Berg said. "I can also assure you that the FBI came to my house on March 31 and told me that the FBI had him in Mosul in an Iraqi prison."

CBS reported on Thursday that Berg was questioned by FBI agents who discovered he had been interviewed before because a computer password he used in college had turned up in the possession of accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zaccarias Moussaoui.

It said the FBI had concluded there was nothing sinister in that. The FBI had no comment on the report.

Dan Senor, spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority, said this week that Nick Berg was arrested in Mosul by Iraqi police on March 24 and released on April 6 and was visited by the FBI three times during his detention.

Brig.-Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said American military police had seen Berg during his detention to make sure he was being fed and treated properly.

Berg returned to Baghdad from Mosul in April and went missing on April 9, during a chaotic period when dozens of foreigners were snatched by guerrillas west of the capital.

His body was discovered by a road near Baghdad and the video of his decapitation was posted on the Internet.

Berg had been in Baghdad from late December to Feb. 1 and returned to Iraq in March. He did not find work and planned to return home at the end of March, according to his parents.

Berg's communications to his parents stopped on March 24 and he told them later he was jailed by Iraqi officials after being picked up at a checkpoint in Mosul.

On April 5, the Bergs filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, naming Rumsfeld and alleging their son was being held illegally by the U.S. military in Iraq. The next day, he was released. (additional reporting by Maher al-Thanoon and Caren Bohan)

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