The US ambassador to Ireland will be asked to attend the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee to answer questions about alleged secret CIA planes using Shannon airport.
Amnesty International yesterday said 50 such flights involving six planes had landed at Shannon, at least one of which had earlier transported a prisoner believed to have been tortured in an Egyptian camp run by the CIA.
The committee meets tomorrow where a wording for the invitation to his excellency James C Kenny is due to be formalised. The US embassy will then be contacted with a view to arranging a date.
Fine Gael TD Bernard Allen who sits on the committee said he acknowledged US assurances that Shannon had not been used for what the US calls "renditions" but nonetheless welcomed the committee's decision to discuss the matter.
Speaking in the Dáil today Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the Government was not aware of any evidence that renditions had taken place through Shannon.
Answering questions about the controversial US definition of torture, Mr Ahern said the only relevant interpretation was that contained in Irish law.
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte asked what steps Mr Ahern had taken to establish whether renditions had taken place and did he believe that all 50 of the landings in question were empty.
He also said the disguise of State aircraft as civilian flights was contrary to the Chicago Convention which requires all State aircraft to seek permission before overflying the sovereign territory of another state.
Mr Ahern said he was aware of the convention and that permission must be sought for any flight involving renditions. "The phenomenon of transferring prisoners by way of what is called extraordinary renditions does not come within the category of permissible flights," Mr Ahern said.
He said he accepted US assurances that such flights had not stopped at Shannon but would be interested to hear what the US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice says when she addresses the issue.
Later, Ms Rice admitted the US had made error in its renditions policy. "When and if mistakes are made, we work very hard to try to correct them," she told reporters after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
There has been controversy in Germany over the CIA's alleged abduction in 2004 of Khaled al-Masri, a Lebanese-born German national, seized in Macedonia and taken to a US prison in Afghanistan where he was tortured.
European governments have expressed outrage over reports of a network of secret detention centres in Eastern Europe where detainees may have been harshly treated.
Poland and Romania are the countries suspected of hosting the camps, though media reports suggest another countries may have been involved.
The Washington Postrecently reported that camps have now been closed and Ms Rice today refused to be drawn on whether they exist or ever existed.
"Were I to confirm or deny, say yes or say no, then I would be compromising intelligence information, and I'm not going to do that," Ms Rice said.