Questions about the existence of such detention centers -- and whether torture has taken place in them -- have dogged Rice's swing through Europe since she left Washington Monday.

And ahead of a dinner with European Union and NATO foreign ministers in Brussels Wednesday, her German, Dutch and Belgian colleagues made it abundantly clear they were not happy with the United States' tactics in the war on terror and pledged to raise the issue vocally at the meeting.

Rather than wait for her European colleagues to start haranguing her on a subject close to their voters' hearts, Rice tackled the allegations head on at the start of a dinner hosted by Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht.

Speaking to the press Thursday, Rice said she told her colleagues: "We are a nation of law. The president of the United States is not going to ask Americans to violate U.S. law or international law."

Earlier Wednesday, the secretary of state appeared to single-handedly shift U.S. administration policy 180 degrees by saying the United Nations Convention Against Torture meant the United States had an obligation to treat prisoners humanely everywhere, not just at home. "If we find abuses we will investigate them and punish them," said Rice.

America's top diplomat also flatly denied allegations, made by Human Rights Watch and other civil liberties groups, that the CIA had used European airports to transfer suspected terrorists from conflict zones to countries where they could be mistreated.

"I confirmed to my colleagues last night that we have not used European airports or airspace for the purpose of transferring detainees to places where they may be tortured," she told reporters.

Rice's emphasis on the importance of international law, along with her reassurances about CIA flights in Europe, appeared to win over her colleagues. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said she had made a "strong intervention" and had successfully "cleared the air."

Even the most vocal critics of the U.S. war on terror left the meeting silenced. "We have received quite clear answers concerning airspace and over-flights, and that there will be no cruel or inhuman treatment inside or outside the United States," said Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot. "All the fields have been covered."

Rice assured U.S. allies "that at no time did the United States agree to inhumane acts or torture, that they have always respected the sovereignty of the states concerned and even if terrorists are not covered by the Geneva Conventions, they have still applied the principles governing those Geneva Conventions," De Gucht told Belgian radio. "I have the impression all ministers generally welcomed that."

The problem has not gone away. Britain, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, is still waiting for a formal clarification of the issue from Washington. The Council of Europe, a Strasbourg-based human rights body, is investigating the allegations. And the European Parliament is poised to set up a temporary committee of inquiry into the matter. But Rice has at least succeeded in calming tensions between allies and averting a damaging transatlantic row.

The United States was not the only fighting force to pledge above-board treatment of prisoners Thursday. A statement issued by NATO foreign ministers at the end of their meeting noted: "Our efforts to fight terrorism will continue to be conducted in conformity with international law."

In particular, NATO officials were keen to draw attention to the alliance's detention policy in Afghanistan, where the 26-member military organization heads the International Security Assistance Force.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai told journalists that detainees could only be held for a maximum of 96 hours and that the Red Cross/Crescent was notified about every prisoner.

Not that ISAF has needed to test the rules -- it has never detained one individual in Afghanistan to date. But that may be about to change after NATO foreign ministers Thursday gave the green light for the international force to expand its operations to the more volatile south of the country, adding up to 6,000 more troops to the 10,000-strong contingent already in the country.

"They will do something very important indeed," said De Hoop Scheffer. "They will bring peace to more people in Afghanistan who have suffered terribly, and help ensure that terrorism cannot take hold of the country once again and use it as a base to threaten the world it did under the rule of Taliban."

Source: United Press International

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