Nato satisfied with US 'rendition' answers

Condoleezza Rice

UNITED STATES: European allies of the United States say they are satisfied with new assurances by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that US treatment of detainees was within international law.

The issue has dogged her European tour, with reports in the media that the CIA has run secret prisons in east Europe and has covertly transported detainees in its war against terrorism. Rights groups say incommunicado detention often leads to torture.

Rice said the US had done nothing unlawful, but stressed that Governments could not afford to be more open on issues such as detention and movement of suspects.

"Intelligence and the gathering of intelligence and the use of intelligence is something that ... is very often misunderstood, because intelligence by its very nature is done in a closed environment," she told a news conference.

Rice repeated her defence of US practices at a dinner for Nato officials and EU foreign ministers on the eve of a one-day Nato meeting.

"We have received quite clear answers concerning airspace and overflights, and that there will be no cruel or inhuman treatment inside or outside the United States," Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said. "All the fields have been covered."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "I think Nato and EU ministers were able to raise their concerns that we should not diverge from one another on the interpretation of international law. "Secretary Rice promised that international agreements are not interpreted any differently in the United States than they are in Europe. That, at least, is a good statement."

A senior US State Department official said ministers had avoided pressing Rice on specific questions about alleged practices, such as running secret prisons in Europe, and had instead sought assurances about the treatment of detainees.

Even then, he said, European Governments had not asked about specific tactics, such as whether the US uses waterboarding, meant to make a detainee feel like he is drowning.

Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the ministers' discussion had improved the atmosphere.

"It cleared the air," he told a news conference.

The New York-based campaign group Human Rights Watch said the policy shift was inadequate because Rice did not address allegations that the CIA runs secret prisons or rule out certain interrogation techniques.

- REUTERS