Speaking at a London press briefing, Straw insisted: "We know of no occasion where there have been any flights involved in rendition through or over U.K. territory nor have we any reason to believe that such flights have taken place without our knowledge."

Yet according to the National Air Traffic Service, the authorities have facilitated hundreds of flights through Britain by three planes registered to the U.S. intelligence agency in the past five years.

In a letter to the Liberal Democrats' Acting Leader Sir Menzies Campbell at the weekend, NATS said the three planes had landed at commercial airports and received help from U.K. traffic control "on a number of occasions."

Parliamentarians seized on the letter, saying it meant ministers could no longer deny knowledge of the flights, which are suspected of transporting terror suspects to countries which practice torture for interrogation.

The United States acknowledges the practice, known as extraordinary rendition, but insists it is conducted entirely in accordance with human rights conventions which prohibit torture.

But critics of the policy say the U.S. definition of torture is far looser than that employed by European countries, and question the purpose of rendition if it is not to evade human rights restrictions.

The letter, written following orders from Transport Minister Karen Buck, says that of four aircraft identified from records as having been used by the CIA, "three have received an ATC (air traffic control service) from NATS on a number of occasions in the past five years. We are not prepared to offer a number because we are not confident that such a number would be robust."

Yet speaking to Channel Four News on Tuesday, NATS was able to give a figure, of around 200 flights. A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats said its sudden change of heart was a cause for concern, as was the fact that in its original response NATS had referred the Liberal Democrats to the Council of Europe report on "Alleged Secret Detentions in European Member States," despite the party having made no reference to rendition in its inquiry.

NATS also said that the flights may have used airspace controlled by the Ministry of Defense. Ministers have attracted criticism for refusing to answer parliamentary questions about how many CIA flights have used military airbases. They claim such information is not recorded centrally and that its retrieval would be expensive.

But the Lib Dem spokesman said this response was simply "unsatisfactory." Every flight that entered and left military airfields had its registration number recorded, along with its origin and destination, he told United Press International. Foreign Affairs Spokesman Nick Clegg had written again to the Ministry of Defense and would take the matter to the Parliamentary Ombudsman if it refused to act, he added.

Giving evidence to a parliamentary foreign affairs committee in December, Straw said Britain had received a total of three requests from the United States to use British territory for prisoner transfers, all under the Clinton administration.

But a government memo leaked to the New Statesman magazine cast doubt on that claim, suggesting ministers knew it to be untrue.

The memo warned "The papers we have unearthed so far suggest there could be more such cases... We cannot say that we have received no such request for the use of U.K. territory."

The document, written Dec. 7 by Irfan Siddiq, an official in the foreign secretary's private office, advised ministers to "try to move the debate on" and "avoid getting drawn down on detail."

However, it also suggested that the government was aware that rendition was rarely legal. Foreign Office lawyers had advised that the practice "is almost certainly illegal" and any British co-operation "would also be illegal," it said, before going on to question whether the U.S. definition of torture was consistent with that under international law.

The memo was written just five days before Straw's testimony and 15 days before Prime Minister Tony Blair rejected calls for an investigation, telling a press conference: "I have absolutely no evidence to suggest that anything illegal has been happening here at all."

Later that month, a well-placed diplomatic source told United Press International that Downing Street and the Foreign Office knew that rendition flights had passed through Britain, were "extremely worried" about the political consequences of the issue and were "simply hoping it is going to go away."

Investigations by the Guardian newspaper and human rights groups -- based on CIA flight logs -- have suggested that some 76 planes operated by the intelligence agency have flown in and out of Britain on over 200 occasions since Sept.11 2001, using both commercial and military airfields.

The Scottish National Party presented a dossier to the Scottish Executive in January detailing 15 planes linked to the CIA that have passed through Scottish airports on numerous occasions since 2001.

It also passed the report to the Council of Europe, the European Union's human rights watchdog, which is currently investigating the allegations. In an interim report in January, investigating Swiss senator Dick Marty said EU governments were almost certainly aware of CIA rendition flights passing through European territory or airspace.

But Angus Robertson, the SNP's foreign affairs spokesman, said the Scottish Executive had not even acknowledged the dossier.

The latest details from NATS underlined the widespread concerns across Europe about such flights and their possible involvement in illegal rendition, he told UPI.

"The U.K. government is turning a blind eye to the issue, as are the devolved authorities in Scotland," he said.

"Despite being provided with a dossier of evidence by me there has not even been an acknowledgement by the administration. This stands in contrast to the Council of Europe, which thought the report important enough to include in its recent critical findings.

Robertson added: "We are united in our commitment to combat terrorism and extremism, but it is essential to do so whilst upholding the highest human rights and legal standards. If this is in doubt we risk charges of hypocrisy."

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, said British law had to be tightened to ensure there were "no loopholes for the United States to exploit."

She told UPI her organization was tabling an amendment to aviation legislation currently before Parliament, which would require the government to command police and customs to actively ensure no rendition flights were taking place. At present, aviation and customs officials do not board U.S. planes or ask questions about who is on board unless passengers are leaving the airfield.

Conservative parliamentarian Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the cross-party group on extraordinary rendition, told UPI that the British government must now be proactive in investigating the claims fully. They must also ask the U.S. administration about the allegations in detail, and put in place procedures to make sure such activities did not occur in future, he said.

"All along the British government has done its best to turn a blind eye to the likelihood that rendition flights may be being conducted through its territory," Tyrie said.

If such flights were carrying prisoners to countries where they were at risk of torture, that activity was unlawful, he continued.

Asked why there seemed to be a contradiction between the latest admission sanctioned by one government minister and the denials of another, Tyrie said there was a sense within the government that "no one really wants to take responsibility."

Unlike the U.S. administration, which was "brazen" in its insistence that the policy was justified in the fight against terrorism, the British government still wanted to be seen to obey Britain's own, stricter, interpretation of human rights law, he said.

The key question was, "does this activity make Britain and the United States any safer?" he told UPI.

"In my view the answer is no. It puts us at risk of being vilified by the very communities whose support we most need."

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