An interim report was released on Tuesday to the 46-nation Council of Europe, a rights body investigating claims that the United States transferred terrorist suspects to countries where they may face torture.
"There is a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing' of torture," the head of the investigation, Swiss senator Dick Marty, said.
"It has been proved -- and in fact never denied -- that individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and transported in Europe, to be handed over to countries in which they have suffered torture," he said.
But Mr Marty said the probe found no irrefutable evidence of the existence of clandestine detention centres in Romania or Poland, as alleged by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
His report also said European governments must have been aware the US was using their territory to transport or detain suspects as part of its “rendition” policy.
"It is highly unlikely that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware," it said.
The Council of Europe launched its investigation after allegations surfaced in November 2005 that US agents interrogated key al-Qaeda suspects at clandestine prisons in eastern Europe and transported some suspects to other countries passing through Europe.
Human Rights Watch identified Romania and Poland as possible sites of secret US-run detention facilities. Both countries have denied involvement. Clandestine detention centres would violate European human rights treaties.
’Hasty conclusions’
But the vice-president of the European Commission,
Franco Frattini, said proof was needed before drawing any conclusions about European involvement.
"Data will be analysed and I think that before drawing any conclusions we have to collect evidence," Mr Frattini said in Sofia after Mr Marty’s interim report was released.
He said the European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, supported the inquiry.
Mr Frattini said he had discussed the CIA prisons probe with Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev who "strongly and clearly denied any allegations" that there were secret CIA detention facilities in Bulgaria.
Earlier in January, the Swiss weekly newspaper SonntagsBlick cited a confidential secret service document, based on a fax to the Egyptian embassy in London, saying that 23 Afghan and Iraqi citizens had been questioned at a base in Romania, which borders Bulgaria.
The report also claimed that CIA interrogation centres existed in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia and Ukraine.
Romania, which along with Bulgaria aims to join the European Union in 2007, has also denied the claims.
Claims dismissed
The US government rejected the European report.
"There's nothing new here; old ground having been ploughed," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, noting that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had answered questions about rendition operations during her European trip last November.
"One, the United States does not torture; we respect the sovereignty of our European friends and allies. The United States does not transfer people where they have a reasonable expectation that they might be subjected to torture,” the spokesman said.