NEW YORK, Nov 30: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the New York Times said on Tuesday.

The Guantanamo prison has been used by the US Army to interrogate hundreds of militants captured in the aftermath of US led war in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks.

According to the report obtained by the New York Times, says "the finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantanamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantanamo.

" The report was distributed to lawyers at the White House, Pentagon and State Department and to the commander of the detention facility at Guantanamo, Gen. Jay W. Hood.

The team of humanitarian workers, which included experienced medical personnel, also asserted that some doctors and other medical workers at Guantanamo were participating in planning for interrogations, in what the report called "a flagrant violation of medical ethics."

Doctors and medical personnel conveyed information about prisoners' mental health and vulnerabilities to interrogators, the report said, sometimes directly, but usually through a group called the Behavioral Science Consultation Team, or B.S.C.T.

The team, known informally as Biscuit, is composed of psychologists and psychological workers who advise the interrogators, the report said. The newspaper said that the United States government, which received the report in July, sharply rejected it. It was the first time that the Red Cross, which has been conducting visits to Guantanamo since January 2002, asserted in such strong terms.