THE Red Cross yesterday called for access to all foreign terrorism suspects held by the US as the EU checked reports of a covert CIA prison system in Europe for al-Qaida captives.

Allegations that the CIA set up secret jails in eastern Europe and elsewhere to interrogate al Qaida suspects today triggered a flurry of denials from governments in the former Soviet bloc and prompted European Union officials, the continent’s top human rights organisation and the international Red Cross to investigate.

The Red Cross has accused the US of using methods that are “tantamount to torture” on terror suspects held in a military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The International Red Cross fears US officials are holding terror suspects secretly in locations across the world without saying where they are.

The United States will hand over Saddam Hussein and all other detainees to Iraq’s new government over the next two weeks as sovereignty is restored, the interim prime minister has said.

The US military will next week begin the first in a series of courts-martial in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse allegations, trials that could bring new revelations on whether the mistreatment of Iraqis was an aberration or stemmed from pressure from commanders.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell urged the Red Cross and other relief organisations to stay in Iraq following a wave of suicide car bombings in Baghdad that killed around 40 people.

THE International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed outrage at the unprecedented suicide bombing of its Baghdad headquarters, which killed at least 10 people, and said it was weighing a withdrawal from Iraq.

Six International Red Cross workers, including two foreigners, have been killed in the Goma region of northeastern Congo in the worst single attack on the organisation in five years.