Swiss Senator Dick Marty delivered an interim assessment of the investigation he is leading to the 46-nation Council of Europe human rights watchdog in Strasbourg, France.

"There is a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing' of torture," Marty wrote in the report, and later added in a news conference he had reason to believe "European governments were aware of what's going on."

The report, however, found no direct evidence so far of the existence of secret CIA detention facilities said to have been set up in Europe after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Marty wrote of "hundreds" of CIA-chartered flights for suspected terrorists that passed through numerous European countries, probably with the knowledge of national governments or at least their intelligence services.

"It has been proved -- and in fact never denied -- that individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and transported ... in Europe, to be handed over to countries in which they have suffered ... torture," he wrote.

Critics of Marty's report say it relies too heavily on newspaper articles already printed, and doesn't include many new details.

The Washington Post broke the news of CIA abductions in early November, and Human Rights Watch later said CIA jails existed in Romania and Poland, though officials from these countries have denied that. The U.S. government has neither denied nor confirmed the reports of secret prisons.

Marty said he had received detailed data from Eurocontrol, Europe's air traffic agency, as well as satellite images from the EU's Satellite Centre, including from sites located on Romanian territory. He said he could not comment on them until later in the investigation.

His investigation coincides with a European Parliament temporary committee set up last week to inquire into CIA activities in European airspace and territory. The committee plans to summon high-ranking politicians and intelligence officials in Brussels this coming spring.

"I'm sure the Polish government will welcome the chance to get down the truth of the matter. We have nothing to hide whatsoever," Ursula Gacek, Polish Member of the Council of Europe said.

Janis Emmanouilidis, EU expert at the Center for Applied Policy Research, a political think tank at Munich University, on Tuesday told United Press International via telephone that with the European Parliament taking on the case, the affair's clout inside Europe was rising.

"For Romania, a country that wants to join the EU in 2007, pressure is mounting to answer claims and cooperate," he said. "If hard evidence indeed would be presented, then it might delay accession for them."

He added the European Parliament likely welcomed the affair "to elevate its own profile."

Speaking from Brussels, British MEP Claude Moraes told United Press International via telephone that "there's no guarantee that our committee will get either higher quality witnesses or more information than the Council of Europe... But what is evident is that the European Parliamentary inquiry will be much more public and transparent."

Marty said such transparency was lacking most of the time; he mentioned the ongoing debate in Germany, where a parliamentary inquiry board on the role of the German intelligence in the U.S.-led war on terrorism looks likely to fail due to government resistance.

In Berlin there was "no willingness to shed all light on this case," Marty said, adding he would continue to follow a criminal investigation launched into the abduction of German national Khaled el-Masri, who was mistakenly seized by the CIA in Europe and moved to Afghanistan.

German Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, of the Free Democrats, said in a Parliamentary Assembly debate shortly before the conference, she was confident Berlin can be pressured into giving more answers.

"Clarification means not everything can be labeled 'classified,'" she said. "Too many facts are already on the table."

In his report, Marty called for a "frank, open dialogue between the institutions on both sides of the Atlantic."

Combating international terrorism effectively could only be achieved if "one side answers the questions and the other is genuinely prepared to ask them."

Journalists in the United States have repeatedly been pressured by the government not to publish information on the affair, Marty said, adding revelations by the media had played a key role in launching the inquiry.

The case of a man abducted in Italy remains Marty's best-documented case of extraordinary rendition.

Marty said he had received "unchallengeable evidence" from Italian prosecutors about CIA flights and the kidnapping of Muslim preacher Abu Omar, a terrorist suspect abducted in Milan in 2003.

Via military airbases in Italy and Germany, Omar was flown to Egypt where he was tortured, according to Italian prosecutors, who have issued an arrest warrant for 22 CIA members accused of carrying out the abduction.

"The Italian judicial investigation established, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the operation was carried out by the CIA (which has not issued any denials)," the report said.

Marty added it was likely the Italian government knew of the abduction.

"If they didn't, how come they have never protested?" he asked in the news conference.

Daniel Keohane, terrorism expert at the Center for European Reform in London told UPI via telephone there was not necessarily much new to Marty's report, but added that any findings will likely be "investigated heavily and taken very seriously."

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