US: President Bush has agreed to ban cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of any detainee in US custody, regardless of the prisoner's legal status or location.
The White House failed to persuade Senator John McCain to exempt CIA officers from the ban, which has overwhelming support in Congress. But the senator agreed to allow CIA personnel accused of torture to defend themselves, as soldiers can, by arguing it was reasonable for them to believe they were obeying a legal order.
"Senator McCain has been a leader to make sure that the United States of America upholds the values of America as we fight and win this war on terror.
"And we've been happy to work with him to achieve a common objective, and that is to make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention on torture, whether it be here at home or abroad," Mr Bush said.
Mr McCain said the measure would remove any confusion about what interrogation practices were permissible and improve America's image in the world.
"We've sent a message to the world that the United States is not like the terrorists.
"We have no grief for them, but what we are is a nation that upholds values and standards of behaviour and treatment of all people, no matter how evil or bad they are.
"And I think that this will help us enormously in winning the war for the hearts and minds of people throughout the world in the war on terror," Mr McCain said.
Yesterday's administration climbdown followed a vote in the House of Representatives on Tuesday calling for the ban to be included in a defence spending Bill going through Congress. The House backed the ban by 308 to 122, with more than 100 Republicans defying their leaders to vote in favour of it.
The Senate backed the torture ban by 90 votes to nine last month.
The White House claims that US interrogators do not use torture but the administration has fought hard to defeat Mr McCain's torture ban, first by threatening to veto the defence spending Bill and later by seeking an exemption for the CIA.
Mr McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, refused to compromise, insisting that all US interrogators should abide by rules set out in the army field manual, based on the Geneva conventions.
The manual is being revised and the new version will lay down precisely what interrogators can and cannot do.
Attorney general Alberto Gonzales insisted the administration's reluctance to embrace the torture ban did not imply that it endorsed the use of torture.
In a separate move, Senate Democrats and Republicans have agreed to seek regular updates from the CIA on secret prisons abroad.
The senators want to know if such prisons exist, where they are, who is being held there and what the conditions are like.
The US has neither confirmed nor denied allegations that the CIA has run secret prisons in a number of countries, including two in eastern Europe, but the agency has given limited briefings on overseas detention facilities to members of Congress.