Powell says Europeans knew about CIA rendition practices

COLIN Powell, the former US secretary of state, has stepped into the row over extraordinary rendition, saying the controversial practice is not new and European governments should not be surprised by it.

Mr Powell was speaking after his successor, Condoleezza Rice, was forced to defend the practice during a recent trip to Europe.

The trip was overshadowed by claims that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ran secret prisons in eastern Europe and covertly transferred suspects via European airports. "Most of our European friends cannot be shocked that this kind of thing takes place," Mr Powell said.

"The fact [is] that we have, over the years, had procedures in place that would deal with people who are responsible for terrorist activities, or suspected of terrorist activities.

"And so the thing that is called rendition is not something that is new or unknown to my European friends," he added.

Ms Rice also said rendition was a decades-old instrument used by the US when governments could not detain or prosecute a suspect and traditional extradition was not an option. In such cases, that government could make a sovereign choice to co-operate in a rendition.

Mr Powell also defended the US against charges that it was unilateralist, but he acknowledged it did not have a good global image at the moment and was going through a period where "public opinion worldwide is against us".

He continued: "I think that's a function of some of the policies we have followed in recent years, with respect to Iraq and in not solving the Middle East's problem and perhaps the way in which we have communicated our views to the rest of the world. We have created an impression that we are unilateralist; we don't care what the rest of the world thinks. I don't think it's a fair impression."

Mr Powell also said the US administration was not aware of doubts about secret intelligence used to justify the war with Iraq. He was "disappointed in what the intelligence community had presented to me and to the rest of us".

"What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced up to us."