The German government warned Washington yesterday to heed European concerns over allegations of Central Intelligence Agency prisons and extra-judicial abductions, or "renditions", on the continent.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, foreign minister, said he was worried Europe and the US were drawing different conclusions on the best means to fight international terrorism.
In an emergency parliamentary debate on the illegal abduction of a German citizen by the CIA, Mr Steinmeier said Washington "appears to be increasingly aware that it cannot deal lightly with the concerns of its European partners".
His comments came amid growing public disquiet in Europe over alleged CIA activities in Europe. Franco Frattini, the European Union's commissioner for justice and home affairs, yesterday pledged his full support for an inquiry into whether the CIA maintained "secret prisons" in Europe.
Mr Steinmeier said he was "worried" that Europe and the US were drawing different conclusions - on laws and, more seriously, on broader justice-related issues - regarding the international terrorism threat.
His comments were seen as an attempt to distance the new German government from the US administration on the issue of CIA activities in Europe.
Mr Steinmeier said German authorities had not known about, or been involved in, the abduction and imprisonment two years ago by the CIA of Khaled al-Masri, a German of Lebanese descent.
Mr Frattini told members of the European parliament in Strasbourg that international agencies should forward satellite imagery and flight data to the investigation on the issue led by the Council of Europe, the 46-nation human rights organisation. The information, requested by Dick Marty, the Swiss politician heading the probe, is held by Euro-control, a European air navigation organisation, and the European satellite agency.
But Mr Frattini did not endorse Mr Marty's statement this week that it was "credible" the US broke the law by temporarily detaining prisoners in Europe and shipping them across borders. "
Liberty, the British civil rights group, last night said it was prepared to launch legal action against the UK government over the issue of London's alleged complicity in rendition.
The move came less than 24 hours after Jack Straw, UK foreign secretary, told the House of Commons he believed assurances from his own officials and Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, that the US had not used British airports to transfer detainees. "There is simply no truth in the claim that the UK is involved in rendition," he told MPs.
Reporting by Hugh Williamson in Berlin, Daniel Dombey in Brussels, Raphael Minder in Strasbourg and Jimmy Burns in London
