Many European Union countries knew the CIA was using their territory to either transfer prisoners or hold them in black prisons and either did nothing or helped, a European Parliament report has found.

An excerpt from the BBC story:

The report follows months of investigation by a special committee of MEPs led by an Italian, Claudio Fava.

"Many governments co-operated passively or actively (with the CIA)," said Mr Fava, quoted by AFP news agency.

He accused top EU officials including foreign policy chief Javier Solana of failing to give full details to MEPs.

The report echoed allegations made in June by the Council of Europe - Europe's leading human rights watchdog - that European states were complicit in illegal CIA operations as part of the US-led "war on terror".

US President George W Bush admitted in September that the CIA had used prisons abroad for the secret detention of terror suspects, but he did not specify where the prisons were.

He insisted the suspects had not been tortured.