The US military, accused of abusing prisoners in Afghanistan, will allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit one of its secretive jails.
The ICRC asked the US military three weeks ago to give it access to the Kandahar prison facility in southern Afghanistan, after fresh allegations of abuse by Afghan detainees surfaced.
Lieutenant-General David Barno, overall commander of about 20,000 US-led troops in Afghanistan, has accepted the ICRC's request for the visit, said a spokesman for the US military.
Details of the visit would be worked out between the ICRC and the US military, said the spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Tucker Mansager.
"It was not something that was hastily considered," Lt Col Mansager told a news briefing in Kabul, when asked why it took three weeks to accept the ICRC request. "I would say that the ICRC and the coalition, the Afghan people...are better served by a deliberate, considered decision and we stand by that."
About 380 prisoners, including militants from Afghanistan's former Taliban regime and their al-Qaeda allies are being held at about 20 US detention centres in the country.
Human rights organisations and former prisoners have accused US soldiers of mistreatment of Afghan prisoners including beating, sleep deprivation and sexual abuse, similar to the treatment of Iraqi inmates at Abu Gharaib prison near Baghdad.
At least three detainees have also died while in US custody in Afghanistan. An inquiry into two deaths at Bagram remains open 18 months after the young men died having suffered "blunt force injuries", according to medical reports.
The US military is also carrying out a sweeping review of its prison system, and vowed to take immediate but unspecified action if it showed that detainees had been abused.