Unease, dismay simmer in Europe over reported CIA flights and prisons

MADRID (AFP) - Controversy over the use of European airports by CIA aircraft and alleged secret prisons simmered on in several European capitals as Washington acknowledged mounting pressure over the issue.

In Spain Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, on the defensive, said that the government had acted in "conformity with the law" regarding secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) flights that landed at Spanish airports.

The government headed by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, one of whose first actions on taking power last year was to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq, has promised "the greatest transparency" over the affair.

The Netherlands on Thursday warned Washington that if it continued to "hide" over reports of secret prisons in eastern Europe, Dutch contributions to US-led military missions could be affected, the ANP news agency reported.

"The US should stop hiding. It will all come out sooner or later," Foreign Minister Ben Bot told the Dutch parliament.