Britain did not allow CIA "torture flights" to use its airports to take terror suspects out of Europe, chief police officers have said.
An 18-month inquiry examined claims by human rights group Liberty that "extraordinary rendition" flights chartered by the US government through the CIA landed in the the UK - before spiriting away terror suspects. Liberty called for the investigation - and last night refused to accept the findings.
Michael Todd, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, agreed to investigate the allegations on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). It was claimed CIA flights have flown into the country more than 210 times since 2001.
The aircraft were alleged to have been carrying terror detainees to other countries where they may have faced torture. The Acpo findings contradict the conclusions of a report published yesterday by human rights watchdog the Council of Europe.
That report claims the US and its Nato allies reached a secret agreement allowing the CIA to hold high value detainees in Europe.
A statement released by Acpo said: "The issue of rendition has been aired extensively in the media and has featured prominently in official reports over a recent period of months.
"Mr Todd has now examined all of the information available relating to this issue and has concluded that there is indeed no evidence to substantiate Liberty's allegations.
Meanwhile Poland and Romania have denied allegations that the CIA ran secret jails in the two countries to interrogate key terror suspects.
In a report, a European investigator said inmates were shackled and handcuffed inmates, with some being kept naked for weeks. The CIA called the report "distorted," but stopped short of denying the existence of prisons in the two countries.
The American agency said it does not discuss the location of its overseas facilities. Following a meeting with US President George Bush in Gdansk, Polish President Lech Kaczynski told reporters: "I know nothing about any CIA prisons in Poland."
His predecessor, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who was president in 2001-05, said: "I deny it. I've said as much several times." Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu, mentioned in a list of ranking officials who allegedly had knowledge of the prisons, dismissed Marty's report as "stupid".
"High value detainees" like self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and suspected senior al Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah were held in Poland, said the report, which cited CIA sources. It said lesser detainees, but still of "remarkable importance", were taken to Romania.
Top officials in both countries knew of the detention centres, said the report by Swiss Dick Marty, a former prosecutor asked by the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, to investigate CIA activities after media reports of secret prisons emerged in 2005.
Mr Marty did not rule out the CIA having more such prisons in Europe, but told reporters he did not include that in his report because his sourcing was insufficient. He accused Germany and Italy of obstructing investigations into secret detentions. The report said its conclusions about the clandestine prisons relied on "multiple sources which validate and corroborate one another".
Mr Marty said his team spoke with "over 30 one-time members of intelligence services in the United States and Europe" as well as former or current detainees and human rights activists. While conceding at a news conference that sources for the report were limited, Mr Marty said they were "well placed", including some who "were implicated".
The alleged prisons were at the centre of a "spider's web" of purported human rights abuses that Mr Marty outlined in his initial investigation a year ago.