WASHINGTON, June 27: The administration of President George W. Bush, pressured by Congress and human rights groups, has vowed not to torture terrorist suspects and to prosecute any US personnel using such methods.

In a letter sent to Congress on Wednesday, the Pentagon’s senior lawyer, William Haynes, said the United States would not “permit, tolerate or condone any such torture by its employees under any circumstances.”

The letter stated a legal obligation to treat all detainees and conduct all interrogations, “wherever they may occur,” in a manner consistent with the longstanding US interpretation of the prohibition of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in the Convention Against Torture.

The letter also made clear that any illegal conduct by US personnel would be investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted.

The letter was followed Thursday by a statement from Bush, committing the United States to the worldwide elimination of torture and to “leading this fight by example.”

The two statements were welcomed by human rights organisations, which had urged the Bush administration to respond to media reports alleging US use of degrading interrogation practices known as “stress and duress.”

“The president and the Defense Department have unequivocally rejected the use of any techniques to interrogate suspects that would constitute ‘cruel’ treatment prohibited by the US Constitution,” said a joint statement from Human Rights Watch and a host of other rights watchdogs.

Concerns over US interrogation techniques surfaced soon after the launch of the war on terrorism following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

In the first 15 months after the attacks, nearly 3,000 suspected Al Qaeda members and supporters were detained worldwide — many of them held as prisoners of war, without access to counsel and without even being identified.

A Washington Post report earlier this year said the secret CIA interrogation center at Bagram air base north of Kabul, the Afghan capital, had been the site of mistreatment including “stress and duress” techniques in which prisoners are deprived of sleep or kept in awkward positions until they feel pain.

The deaths of two Afghan detainees in Bagram in December have since been classified as homicides and a US Army criminal investigation is underway.

Similar concerns have been raised over the Afghans accused of terrorism and detained at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.—AFP