BBC
The US has defended its treatment of suspects detained in the war on terror, telling a UN committee that it considers the use of torture as wrong.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Barry Lowenkron told the Committee on Torture in Geneva that US law prohibited such practices.
Senior US officials are testifying before the committee for the first time since the 11 September 2001 attacks.
Rights groups accuse the US of flouting the UN Convention against Torture.
They accuse the US of allowing the torture and inhumane treatment of foreign terror suspects at their detention centres in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.
In his opening statement, Mr Lowenkron stressed that the US government rejected the use of torture.
"My government's position is clear: US criminal law and treaty obligations prohibit torture. Torture is wrong," he said.
But Amnesty International says the US' public statements contradicted its practices.
"The US government is not only failing to take steps to eradicate torture, it is actually creating a climate in which torture and other ill-treatment can flourish, including by trying to narrow the definition of torture," said the group's spokesman Curt Goering.
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