LONDON, Nov 30: Britain has written to US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice over claims that the CIA used European Union airports to transport terrorist suspects, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Wednesday.

EU foreign ministers agreed last week that Britain, which currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, should write to the United States in a bid to clear up the allegations.

“That letter has now gone,” Straw told reporters at a London news conference. “I’m awaiting a reply. And of course when I get the reply I will circulate it to all my foreign minister colleagues.”

His request comes amid growing concern across Europe about reports that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used European countries for the transport, illegal detention and the torture of suspected Muslim terrorists.

Liberty, a British human rights group, said on Wednesday it had urged the British government and police to investigate whether the CIA transported prisoners through British airports.

Liberty’s director Shami Chakrabarti told BBC radio that she made her request for an investigation in a letter to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and to chiefs of police across Britain, where the airports may have been used.

She added that her group would take legal action if they failed to take action within two weeks.—AFP