Ms Rice said she would respond to the EU before a visit to Europe on Monday.
The Washington Post newspaper first reported on 2 November that the CIA had been using Soviet-era camps in eastern Europe to detain and interrogate terror suspects.
In response to that and further media reports of possible violations of international law Britain formally wrote to the US, on behalf the EU, to ask for "clarification".
"When it comes to human rights, there is no greater leader than the United States of America, and we show that by holding people accountable when they break the law or violate human rights"
White House spokesman Scott McClellan
"It's very clear they want European governments to stop pushing on this,'' a European diplomat, who has been speaking to the US officials drafting Ms Rice's response, told the New York Times. "They were stuck on the defensive for weeks, but suddenly the line has toughened up incredibly."
Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern told the New York Times that Ms Rice told him in Washington that she expected allies to trust that America does not allow rights abuses.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/4497006.stm
Note: http://news.bbc.co.uk/g...
Rice 'to Talk Tough On CIA Claim'
Posted on Monday, December 05 at 10:19 by jensonjContributed By
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"BERLIN, Dec. 5 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chastised European leaders on Monday, saying that before they complain about secret jails for terror suspects in European nations, they should realize that interrogations of these suspects have produced information that helped "save European lives."<br />
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice read a prepared statement to reporters before flying to Europe from the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.<br />
Multimedia<br />
Video: Condoleezza Rice Defends Tactics<br />
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Her remarks were the Bush administration's official response to the reports of a network of secret detention centers in at least eight European nations, said to house dozens of terror suspects.<br />
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At the same time, she denied that the United States has moved suspects to these prisons to allow interrogators to use torture. "The United States," she said, "does not permit, tolerate or condone torture under any circumstances." At another point, she said, "The United States does not transport and has not transported detainees from one country to another for the purpose of interrogation using torture."<br />
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Intelligence gathered from these interrogations, she said, "has stopped terrorist attacks and saved innocent lives in Europe as well as the United States." <br />
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/international/europe/06rice.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/international/europe/06rice.html</a><br />
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