United States: A top US government lawyer has warned that "absurd allegations" concerning the CIA operating thousands of rendition flights in Europe are damaging intelligence-sharing with Europe.
Speaking in Brussels before travelling to Geneva to defend the US policy of rendition before the UN Committee Against Torture, John Bellinger called on responsible EU officials to challenge the assertions and said the US did not condone or outsource torture.
"It's not possible for the United States to prove a negative, but responsible European governments or responsible European officials simply need to say this has gotten out of hand," said Mr Bellinger, legal adviser to US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
Mr Bellinger's comments follow publication of an interim report last week by the European Parliament which found that the CIA had run more than 1,000 flights within the EU since 2001, often transporting terror suspects for questioning overseas.
Mr Bellinger did not deny that rendition - where terrorist suspects are transferred from one country to another - had taken place but he said there were "very few" cases.
He said the suggestion in the report that intelligence flights are engaged in illegal activity undermined co-operation between the US and Europe. These flights may be carrying analysts, officials engaged in counterterrorism co-operation or forensic evidence.
Mr Bellinger, who is due to meet MEPs on the European Parliament committee that drew up the report, also asked European leaders to come up with alternative ideas that would enable the US to shut down the controversial detention centre in Guantánamo.
He said EU countries were quick to call for the closure of the detention centre in Cuba but few had come forward with any alternative plans for dealing with the detainees.