BRUSSELS, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot on Thursday welcomed the admission by U.S. President George W. Bush that the CIA operates secret prisons outside America, Dutch media reported.

    Bot said it was important all prisoners held at these facilities are given the protection of the Geneva Convention. This would give the terrorism suspects the right to due process, a lawyer and visits from the Red Cross.

    Bush said on Wednesday that 14 key terrorist suspects held overseas have now been sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where all inmates are to fall under the Geneva Convention.

    In a robust defense of his policy, Bush said the prisons were a vital tool in the war on terror and that intelligence gathered had saved lives. The CIA treated detainees humanely and did not use torture, he said.

    Bot told Radio 1 on Thursday he was not surprised about the existence of the secret jails as there had been rumors about them for some time.

    But Bot said he was disappointed U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, on her visit to Brussels last December, had refused to answer him when he repeatedly asked whether the CIA operated such jails.

    Rice had refused to confirm the existence of the secret jails but she insisted the CIA did not use torture.

    Bot said the admission by the president days before the fifth anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. had come about due to a combination of international pressure and American public opinion.

    The minister said he was now eagerly awaiting Bush's new proposal on setting up military tribunals to try the terror suspects held in U.S. custody. Enditem