SYDNEY, Jan 6: An Australian held by the United States in Guantanamo Bay has claimed he was tortured during interrogation in Egypt and abused while in US custody in Pakistan, his lawyers said on Thursday.

Egyptian-born Mamdouh Habib, a father of four, is one of two Australians being held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was detained in Egypt for six months shortly after his capture in Pakistan in the weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The former Sydney taxi driver has been accused of aiding Al Qaeda but has so far not been charged and few details of the allegations against him have been released. Supporters want Mr Habib and fellow Australian detainee David Hicks brought back to Australia for trial, but the US-allied government has given this little support.

There have been suggestions that Mr Habib might instead be returned to Egypt, where he would face worse conditions than in Guantanamo Bay. According to a US affidavit prepared by Mr Habib's American lawyer Joe Margulies in a bid to stop that happening, his Egyptian captors gave Habib electric shocks and beat him.

Mr Habib said he was forced into false confessions, such as admitting to training Al Qaeda fighters in martial arts. In Islamabad, after his capture, a man who had introduced himself to Habib as an Australian consular official watched on while a US agent stood on his neck, the affidavit said.

The incident, which allegedly occurred while Habib was handcuffed, took place at an airfield in Islamabad in late October 2001 and photographs had been taken. "The person with his foot on Mr Habib's neck explained, in unaccented American English, that he planned to send one picture to his girlfriend and another to his sister," the affidavit said.

Habib's Australian lawyer Stephen Hopper said it was proof the Australian government knew that he had been tortured. Attorney General Philip Ruddock however denied any Australian official witnessed any abuse against Habib in Pakistan. -AFP