Gordon Brown Is Sorry

The British Government was forced to admit that two US "rendition" flights transporting terrorist suspects had landed on UK soil.

Gordon Brown expressed his "disappointment and that he felt used and violated " following the disclosure that two flights had refuelled on the British Indian Ocean island territory of Diego Garcia in 2002, despite years of denials.

Six years on, one of the suspects involved is still being held by the US at Guantanamo Bay. The other has been released.

"We have got to assure ourselves that these procedures will never happen again and we shall never let the rosy feeling of love let us be fooled again," the Prime Minister told reporters in Brussels where he was holding talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

In the Commons, Foreign Secretary David Miliband told MPs that he was "very sorry indeed" that he now had to "correct" the false statements made by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Mr Miliband accepted previous US assurances that no rendition flights had landed on British soil or flown through British airspace since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, that had been given in good faith in accordance with our "special relationship" with the USA that means that we get treated as nearly an equal or at least like a lap dog by the United states and actually get told information.

Nevertheless, he said that for the "avoidance of doubt", Foreign Office officials would now be drawing up a list of flights involving UK facilities about which concerns had been expressed.

America has assured the British government that the flight schedule codenamed "Secret prisoner torture transport " was merely a name and it only transported equipment like bibles for the troops.