This paper deals with the problem of controlling contact forces in robotic manipulators with general kinematics. The main focus is on control of grasping contact forces exerted on the manipulated object. A visco-elastic model for contacts is adopted. Robustness of the decoupling controller with respect to the uncertainties affecting system parameters is investigated. Sufficient conditions for the invariance of decoupling action under perturbations on the contact stiffness and damping parameters are provided. These conditions are meaningful for several classes of manipulation systems with general kinematics.