BEIJING, June 8 - The head of an investigation into alleged CIA secret prisons in Europe said Wednesday that planes carrying terror suspects stopped in Romania and Poland, likely to drop off detainees.

    Swiss Senator Dick Marty said in a report that Romania was part of what he called a "renditions circuit" and was used as a stopover by CIA planes carrying terror suspects. He also said a Polish airport was likely used as a detainee drop-off point and accused several other countries of colluding with the CIA's "questionable activities."

    The report, however, offered no clear, direct proof that CIA detention centers were set up in European countries. It relied mostly on flight logs provided by the European Union's air traffic agency, Eurocontrol, and evidence gathered from people who said they had been abducted by U.S. intelligence agents.

    Marty was to discuss his findings with the Council of Europe's legal affairs committee later Wednesday.

    Wednesday's The Guardian quoted Marty as saying: "Whilst hard evidence, at least according to the strict meaning of the word, is still not forthcoming, a number of coherent and converging elements indicate that secret detention centers have indeed existed and unlawful interstate transfers have taken place in Europe."

    His investigation runs parallel to a probe by the European Parliament, which has said that flight data show there have been more than 1,000 clandestine CIA flights stopping on European territory since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

    Allegations that CIA agents shipped prisoners through European airports to secret detention centers, including compounds in Eastern Europe, were first reported in November by The Washington Post. Human Rights Watch later identified air bases in Poland and Romania as possible locations of the alleged secret prisons, but both countries have denied involvement.

    Clandestine prisons and secret flights via Europe to countries where suspects could face torture would breach the continent's human rights conventions.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)