CONDOLEEZZA RICE, the US Secretary of State, will try to dismiss mounting concern over alleged CIA human rights abuses in Europe when she embarks on a four-day tour of the Continent today.

Allegations have been multiplying almost daily that the CIA has operated secret prisons in Eastern Europe and covertly abducted and transported alleged terrorists through Europe. The claims have provoked demands for a response from the US Government.

It is alleged that the CIA runs a secret global abduction and internment operation of suspected terrorists, known as “extraordinary rendition”, which since 2001 has captured about 3,000 people and transported them around the world.

Dr Rice will give a robust defence of America’s actions in response to terrorism. She will tell European leaders that the US does not fly prisoners around the world to be tortured, and that it has respected the sovereignty of all the countries that it has dealt with.

The US Government has so far refused to comment, insisting that it is a matter for national security, which has only fuelled speculation.

During the trip to Germany, Belgium, Romania and the Ukraine, Dr Rice is expected to give a formal response to an official request by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, on behalf of EU governments, that the US answer the allegations.

Stephen Hadley, President Bush’s National Security Adviser, told Fox News yesterday: “She is going to be addressing these issues in a comprehensive way. One of the things she will be saying is ‘look, we are all threatened by terror. We need to co-operate on its solution’.

“As part of that co-operation, for our part, we comply with US law. We respect the sovereignty of the countries with which we deal and we do not move people around the world so that they can be tortured.”

Mr Hadley told CNN that Dr Rice would not comment on specific CIA operations. “Obviously if there are these types of intelligence operation going on, they are the kinds of thing that one cannot talk about. Why? Because the information would help the enemy.”

About a dozen European governments have launched internal investigations into allegations that the CIA used their airports covertly to move terrorist suspects around the world, including to and from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Der Spiegel reports that the CIA has made 437 flights through German airspace — some using German airports — in the past two years.

The CIA is alleged to have made secret flights through Britain, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Denmark, the Irish Republic and other EU countries. Eight European governments have demanded a response from the US. The Council of Europe, an intergovernmental human rights group, has begun an investigation.

Legal advice sought by an all-party parliamentary group, which meets for the first time today, concluded that the British Government would be guilty of breaking international law if it allowed secret flights to use UK airports, it was reported last night. Academics from New York University said: “A state which aids or assists another state in the commission of an internationally wrongful act by the latter is internationally responsible for doing so.”

The British Government has insisted that there is nothing wrong with the CIA flying planes through British airspace, and admits that it does not know or ask whether there are any prisoners on the flights.

According to The Washington Post, the US Government has pressed Berlin not to complain about the CIA’s wrongful alleged kidnapping and imprisonment of Khaled Masri, a German who says he was abducted in Macedonia and tortured at a US base in Afghanistan.

Despite the controversy, the US State Department believes that there is little appetite among European governments to take on the US over its tactics in the war on terror.

FLIGHTS UNDER SCRUTINY

Germany 437 CIA flights landed or crossed airspace, according to Der Spiegel

France 2 jets carrying suspects to Guantanamo Bay apparently used airports

Britain 210 flights alleged to have used British airports

Portugal 34 CIA flights reported landed; has asked for clarification from US

Italy 17 secret CIA flights landed between July 2002 and May 2005, according to Corriere della Sera

Spain 10 CIA flights alleged to have landed in Tenerife and Majorca

Iceland 67 CIA flights alleged to have landed since 2001; has demanded an explanation from US

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