Nations face penalties for CIA detention centres

BRUSSELS - The dispute over CIA detention centres threatened to open a fresh rift within Europe after the European Commission warned that any country found to be hosting the secret prisons could be penalised.

Meanwhile, the United States said that it needed more time to respond to allegations about the centres - the first time, at least in public, that Washington has not simply refused to comment on the issue.

Franco Frattini, the European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, warned that any countries found to be allowing the CIA to operate detention centres for terrorist suspects could have its voting rights suspended.

Three initiatives are under way to try to investigate the claims, which surfaced early this month and initially implicated Poland and Romania. Since then, a number of countries have faced claims that CIA planes may have landed on their territory while transporting terrorist suspects. Evidence shows that the planes landed and refuelled in Scotland.

Speaking in Berlin, Frattini reminded EU member states that breaches of human rights could be punishable by their voting rights being suspended.

The European Commission's Director-General for Justice and Home Affairs, Jonathan Faul, raised the issue with the White House and US State Department last week. Frattini said: "They told him: 'Give us the appropriate time to evaluate the situation.' Right now, there is no response."

The UK presidency of the EU has written to the US to seek clarification, and the Council of Europe - the continent's human rights watchdog - has launched a formal inquiry, writing to all member countries.

Denials have come from several countries. Poland's Defence Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said: "I am sure you have heard the firm denials of the Government spokesman. There is nothing to investigate. It hasn't happened. In Sweden they had allegations and it turned out to be a wedding. Can we investigate every claim?"

All EU member states and applicant countries are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights, a charter that precludes the use of clandestine detention centres.

Frattini said Romania's Interior Minister, Vasile Blaga, had also assured him that the allegations were untrue and that Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase, used by US forces to transport troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, was not used to hold or interrogate terror suspects.

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