UK government has admitted Iraq rendition case

The British government has admitted for the first time that it handed over two terror suspects captured in Iraq five years ago to United States agents, who transferred them to Afghanistan for interrogation.

The announcement by John Hutton, the UK's defence secretary, on Thursday came despite previous government assurances to the contrary concerning the UK transferring prisoners.

The pair are still being held in Afghanistan, but the US had promised that they were held in a "humane, safe and secure environment", Hutton said.

"Two individuals were captured by UK forces in and around Baghdad, they were transferred to US detention in accordance with normal practice and then moved subsequently to the US detention facility in Afghanistan," Hutton said about the operation in 2004.

The two suspects were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba an "organisation with links to Al-Qaeda", he said.

"The US government has explained to us that they were moved to Afghanistan because of a lack of relevant linguists necessary to interrogate them effectively in Iraq," he said.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group, has been blamed by India for last year's terror attacks on Mumbai that killed more than 165 people.

Hutton said it was clear, in retrospect, that the transfer of the two suspects "should have been questioned at the time".

The European parliament has denounced EU member states who colluded with the US to help the CIA carry out secret "rendition" flights which transported so-called terror suspects to third countries for interrogation.