US: Republican leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives have called for an inquiry into the leaking of information about CIA-run secret prisons in eastern Europe and south-east Asia.
Senate majority leader Bill Frist and House speaker Dennis Hastert have asked the senate intelligence committee to find out how the Washington Post heard about the prisons, known as "black sites".
One member of the committee, Republican Trent Lott, said he believed the leak came from the senate itself, after vice-president Dick Cheney briefed the senate ethics committee on the prisons.
"The question is probably going to get into the area of what was said in that meeting. I don't think what is discussed in that room should be talked about ... and I think somebody did. ...Apparently a senator told a staff person who went to the Post," he said.
The newspaper cited current and former US and foreign intelligence officers and senior US officials in support of its report that the CIA has held more than 100 terrorist suspects in secret jails. The prisoners have no access to lawyers and are held indefinitely.
The paper said CIA interrogators use methods that are illegal in the US.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said any investigation of the information in the Washington Post story should be broad in scope and include the possible manipulation of pre-war intelligence on Iraq and the White House disclosure of the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA officer.
"There is plenty to investigate about the Bush administration's use and misuse of intelligence," she said.
The CIA has referred the leak to the justice department.
Senators on Tuesday rejected a proposal to establish an independent commission to investigate the abuse of wartime prisoners held by US military and government agencies. The White House has been lobbying the House of Representatives to exempt the CIA from a ban on US government employees subjecting detainees to cruel and inhuman treatment.
