KABUL, Feb 5: A United Nations rights investigator examining the situation in Afghanistan said on Saturday that foreign troops had mistreated and possibly tortured people in the war-torn country.

"There is a very unusual practice in Afghanistan, mainly foreign forces, who have taken upon themselves the right, without any legal process of arresting people, detaining them, mistreating them and possibly even torturing them," said Cherif Bassiouni, the UN-appointed Independent Expert on Human Rights in Afghanistan.

Bassiouni, who leaves on Sunday after a week exploring the human rights' situation in Afghanistan, said he would report the information to the next session of the UN's Human Rights Commission in March.

"There is not (a) legal basis for coalition forces to hold people as prisoners," Bassiouni said.

"If they're held as prisoners of war, then they have to observe the Geneva convention. If they're held as common prisoners, then they have to conform with Afghani law and constitution. They're (foreign forces) not doing it," he said.

On a previous visit to Afghanistan in August 2004 the expert expressed concerns about the legality of detention centres run by the US military and called for them to be opened to independent inspectors.

The 18,000-strong US-led coalition, including 16,000 American soldiers, has been deployed in Afghanistan since 2001.

Top UN and Afghan rights officials said last month that war crimes suspects in Afghanistan, including key figures in the country's former administrations, must be prosecuted if stability is to be achieved.-AFP