VIENNA, Nov. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The Council of Europe on Wednesday urged European countries to provide full information for a probe into alleged secret US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) detention centers and covert flights in Europe as Austria joined a flurry of investigations into the issue.

    The European Council's member states should provide information to the inquiry before Feb. 21 next year, the Council's Chief Terry Davis said in a written statement.

    The inquiry would look at governments' compliance with European human rights law and whether officials had been involved in "unacknowledged" detentions or transport of detainees, including "at the instigation of any foreign agency", the statement said.

    Socialist lawmakers in the European Parliament also urged the European Commission, the EU's head office, to launch its own inquiry into the issue.

    Austria's Air Force has launched an investigation into a US flight allegedly carrying terror suspects for the CIA which flew across its airspace in 2003, the Austrian air force chief said on Wednesday.

    Press reports have said the CIA has operated secret detention facilities in eastern Europe, Afghanistan, Thailand and elsewhere in order to circumvent US laws protecting detainees, particularly restrictions on the use of torture.

    Planes allegedly operated by the CIA have been spotted at airports in Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden as well as Morocco.

    These reports whipped up disputes in both the United States and Europe, and the Council of Europe has carried out investigations on 31 flights across European airspace, suspicious of flying terror suspects to secret CIA prisons.

    A US transport plane, flying from Frankfurt, Germany to Azerbaijan was contacted by Austrian fighter jets when the plane crossed the European country's airspace on Jan. 21, 2003, Austrian Maj. Gen. Erich Wolf said in a radio interview on Wednesday.

    The US plane was later allowed to continue its flight as the Austrian authorities deemed, at that time, the aircraft, disguised as a civilian flight, was not abusing its airspace, Wolf also said.

    However, Austria's opposition party, the Social Democrats, has demanded the government investigate into the event to determine whether it was a CIA plane, with terror suspects on board, that flew through the neutral nation's airspace.

    The aircraft's owner, Tepper Aviation, has insisted the flight was a civilian one.

    Meanwhile, the Austrian foreign ministry refused to comment on reports that it had lodged a diplomatic protest to Washington on the overflight of CIA transport aircraft. Enditem