'CIA prisons' on German minister's agenda for Rice

New German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier meets with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today and is expected to bring up reports that the CIA set up secret jails in some European nations.

Steinmeier has declined to comment on media speculation that prisoners were tortured in the secret prisons allegedly set up by the CIA in eastern Europe.

He discussed the topic during the first day of his visit in the United States in a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Steinmeier is also scheduled to meet Rice’s top deputy, Robert Zoellick, and national security adviser, Stephen Hadley.

Steinmeier’s two-day-visit to the US paves the way for new German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s first meeting with President George Bush, which is expected to take place in Washington next January. Merkel took office earlier this month.

Rice and Zoellick will meet separately with Merkel over the next two weeks, the US State Department announced yesterday.