CIA secret jails effect Europe-US ties
Regional-USA, Politics, 9/11/2006

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht was quoted saying Saturday he feels that the affair surrounding the secret CIA prisons will have a negative effect on transatlantic relations.

"Flandernews" website reported that De Gucht said in an interview with Belgian news agency Belga that "the Americans have concealed the truth (from their allies) and this kind of behaviour is not acceptable in a democracy" US President George W Bush's admitted on Thursday that the United States' secret service, the CIA, operates secret prison facilities abroad.

The Belgian minister said he asked the Polish and Romanian governments for an explanation at a recent meeting of EU Foreign Minister.

"Moreover, I was the only one of the 25 EU foreign ministers at the meeting to do so." Poland and Romania are two European countries said to have hosted the CIA secret prisons.

De Gucht called the US President's account of CIA methods and the treatment of prisoners "unacceptable in a democracy."

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