El-Masri's said he was abducted by CIA agents, tortured and transported to a secret prison in Afghanistan.

GENEVA  – The top United Nations anti-torture body on Friday, May 19, told the United States it should close its overseas secret detention facilities and the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba, stop transferring detainees to other countries for questioning and rescind cruel interrogation techniques of detainees.

"The United States should ensure that no one is detained in any secret detention facility under its de facto effective control and investigate and disclose the existence of any such facilities," The United Nations Committee on Torture, said in a report a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

"Detaining persons in such conditions constitutes, per se, a violation of the Convention," said the committee, which examines compliance with the UN Convention against Torture, or other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Reports of clandestine CIA interrogation centers and transport flights for terror suspects emerged in November.

In a report entitled "Ending Secret Detention", the American Human Rights Watch said the US has more than 24 world detention camps, at least half of them operate in total secrecy, where the abuse of detainees is "inevitable."

Since 9/11, the CIA has rendered more than 100 people from one country to another, usually with well-documented records of abuse, without legal proceedings, according to the Washington Post.

Eradicate Torture

The 10-member committee, which examined the US record at home and abroad, also urged the Bush administration to "rescind any interrogation technique" that constituted torture or cruel treatment, citing the use of dogs in the US-run facilities to induce detainees' fear.

It expressed concern at "reliable reports of acts of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" by US military or civilian personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The state party (the United States) should take immediate measures to eradicate all forms of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by its military or civilian personnel ... and should promptly and thoroughly investigate such acts and prosecute all those responsible...," it said.

The US military holds now around 490 detainees in Guantanamo Bay, about 400 more in Afghanistan and approximately 14,000 at facilities in Iraq, according to a Pentagon count.

The committee said all detainees should be registered and a record kept of the time and place of interrogations, urging Washington to report back in a year.

"Lenient Sentences"

The committee further said it was "deeply concerned" at the "very lenient sentences" even after cases that had involved fatalities.

It added that such action did "not reflect the seriousness the state party claims in dealing with those abuses."

"The state party should take firm measures to eradicate all forms of torture and ill-treatment by its law enforcement personnel, civil or military, in Afghanistan and Iraq," it said.

In its testimony, the US delegation told the committee that use of torture or cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment by the US military or intelligence services was outlawed, wherever they may be operating.

The officials said Washington had been obliged to act following revelations of ill-treatment in recent years, and that laws, procedures and training were now more "rigorous."

The delegation also told the committee that 89 service personnel had been convicted in 103 courts martial as authorities attempted to root out abuses.

They included a string of prosecutions following revelations in 2004 of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad, as well cases involving personnel in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Nineteen of the convictions involved sentences of at least one year, while 28 servicemen or women were thrown out of the US military.

"State Secrets"

The UN report comes one day after a US federal court dismissed a lawsuit by a German national, who claimed that he was abducted and tortured in a secret "rendition" operation, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Khaled El-Masri filed a lawsuit against former CIA chief George Tenet, three CIA-linked aviation companies and a number of CIA agents for being forcibly seized in a CIA rendition operation in Skopje, Macedonia, on December 31, 2003.

He said he abducted by the CIA, beaten and transported to a secret prison in Afghanistan, where he was held incommunicado long after his innocence was established. He was flown to Albania in May 2004 and released without being charged.

The district court in Alexandria, Virginia, turned back the suit on the basis of "states secrets" privilege.

"There is no doubt that the states secrets privilege is validly asserted here," the ruling said.

"While dismissal of the complaint deprives El-Masri of an American judicial forum for vindicating his claims ... El-Masri's private interests must give way to the national interest in preserving state secrets."

The court, however, said that the US government should offer a "remedy" if there was any truth to Masri's story.

"If El-Masri's allegations are true or essentially true, then all fair-minded people, including those who believe that state secrets must be protected (and) that renditions are a necessary step to take in this war, must also agree that El-Masri has suffered injuries as a result of our country's mistake and deserves a remedy," the ruling said.

The judge said that remedy should come from the US government's executive or legislative branch, and not the courts.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in December 6 that the US admitted it made a mistake in abducting El-Masri and flying him to a secret prison in Afghanistan for questioning.

In February, the US government agreed to pay $300,000 to settle an illegal detention lawsuit brought by an Egyptian man who was among hundreds of Muslims rounded up in New York after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Renditions were first authorized by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and used by the Clinton administration to transfer drug lords and terrorists to the US or other countries for military or criminal trials.

US President George W. Bush has strongly defended such transfers as "vital to the nation's defense."