Nearly 400 people in Germany were battling a severe and potentially fatal version of the infection that attacks the kidneys. A U.S. expert said doctors had never seen so many cases of the condition, hemolytic uremic syndrome, tied to a foodborne illness outbreak before.

Investigators across Europe were frantically trying to determine how many vegetables were contaminated with enterohaemorrhagic E.coli -- an unusual, toxic strain of the common E. coli bacterium -- and where in the long journey from farm to grocery store the contamination occurred.

The highly politicized mystery over the source of the E. coli contamination deepened in the light of new evidence that two strains of the bacterium may be involved. German officials said they were still looking at Spanish produce but Spain said the discovery was proof its farms were not the source.

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Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun was being debriefed at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center by intelligence specialists, psychologists, physicians and a Muslim chaplain, said Army Lt. Col. Sally Harvey, a clinical neuropsychologist at the hospital who is overseeing the questioning.

"He has fully engaged in the process," Harvey said in a telephone interview from Landstuhl. "His spirits are good and he's participated fully."

Harvey was not permitted to say what Hassoun might have told investigators about his disappearance June 20 from his base near the troubled Iraqi city of Fallujah.

In the three weeks that the 24-year-old was missing, various conflicting reports emerged about him -- first that he was beheaded, then that he was alive. Arab television on June 27 showed a videotape of him with his eyes covered by a white blindfold and a sword hanging over his head.

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