UN body urges US to shut Guantanamo

The 10 independent experts, who examined the US record at home and abroad, urged President George W. Bush's administration to "rescind any interrogation technique" that constituted torture or cruel treatment of foreign terrorism detainees.

It cited use of dogs to terrify detainees, "water-boarding" which is a form of mock drowning, and sexual humiliation.

The United States "should ensure that no one is detained in any secret detention facility under its de facto effective control" and "investigate and disclose the existence of any such facilities," said the committee, which has moral authority but no legal power to enforce its recommendations.

"Detaining persons in such conditions constitutes, per se, a violation of the Convention," said the committee, which examines compliance with the 1987 UN Convention against Torture, or other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Secret detainees are deprived of fundamental legal rights and could face torture, according to the body, which regretted the US "no comment" policy on allegations of secret detention.

The United States is holding hundreds of terrorism suspects, most arrested since al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks in 2001, at its prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay.