US shifts to ban cruelty to detainees abroad

"As a matter of US policy, the United States' obligations under the CAT (Convention against Torture), which prohibits cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment -- those obligations extend to US personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the United States or outside of the United States," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

US officials said her comments, made during a trip to Ukraine, marked a policy shift toward the international convention on torture. It follows strong pressure from Europe and the US Congress.

Previously, the Bush administration had interpreted the convention as only applying to US territory.

Human rights groups have said the United States has exploited that loophole to mistreat prisoners in places such as Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

The move is also an important concession in US domestic politics where Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona and a former prisoner of war who was mistreated in Vietnam, has pressed the administration to close the loophole.

Until Wednesday, the administration, led by Vice-President Dick Cheney, had resisted legislation proposed by McCain that was widely backed in Congress.

Rice was in Brussels yesterday for talks with EU and Nato counterparts which was clouded by continuing controversy over alleged CIA prison flights to Europe.

Rice, on the last leg of a four-country European tour, was set to join fellow ministers from both bodies at an informal dinner Wednesday evening, before a formal Nato ministerial meeting on Thursday.