The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, London

Britain was forced to admit Thursday to the use of its territory by two US planes carrying terror suspects on "rendition" flights and the White House said "mistakes" were made in the official record. Britain has always denied any involvement in so-called "extraordinary rendition" operations run by the CIA, but Foreign Secretary David Miliband apologised to parliament after a US "record error" came to light. Miliband said new information showed that two flights, each with one suspect on board, refuelled at the US air base on the British Indian Ocean territory of Diego Garcia in 2002. His apology prompted some lawmakers to accuse Washington of lying to its closest ally in the "war on terror," while legal and civil liberties groups called for a full-scale inquiry. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was disappointed by the US error.

"It is obviously a very serious issue," Brown told a news conference on a visit to the EU headquarters in Brussels.

"The United States has expressed regret about us not knowing about these issues. We share the disappointment that everybody has about what actually happened.

"I think the important thing is now that we put in place the best possible procedures to ensure that this could not happen again," he said.

The United States acknowledged its fault, but the White House stressed there would be no impact on counter-terrorism cooperation with Britain.

"Our government had told the British that there had been no rendition flights involving their soil or airspace since 9/11," Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden said, referring to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"That information, supplied in good faith, turned out to be wrong," Hayden added in a statement on the CIA website.

Hayden denied that the CIA had a holding facility on Diego Garcia.