U.S. Admits Wrongful Detention, German Chancellor Says

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives at the military part of the Berlin Tegel airport on Monday. (Markus Schreiber - AP)

At the news conference with Merkel, Rice indicated that countries that do not cooperate with the United States run the risk of losing access to valuable intelligence information.

"Our intelligence cooperation is extremely important to protecting the citizens of the United States and also the citizens of our partners," Rice said. "We do have to have intelligence organizations that can cooperate, that can be effective, that can bring to bear intelligence on the terrorism problem."

Rice added, "Without good intelligence, you can simply not protect innocent civilians from the kinds of attacks we have experienced across the globe."

The agreement with Romania to permit the stationing of U.S. troops marks a significant advance in the Pentagon's effort to reduce the large military bases in Germany and create more flexible bases in Eastern Europe. Under the agreement, which Rice signed Tuesday, the U.S. force at Mihail Kogalniceanu air base, on the Black Sea, will remain relatively small, and troops will frequently rotate.

Human Rights Watch has cited flight records of aircraft allegedly linked to the CIA to suggest that facilities in Poland and Romania were used as detention centers. The human rights group named the Kogalniceanu base as one of four possible Romanian sites. Both countries have denied they housed secret CIA prisons, and intelligence officials have said many of the flights likely carried CIA officials and were probably unrelated to the transport of terrorist suspects.

At the news conference here, Romanian President Traian Basescu angrily denounced the "speculation about the landing of certain airplanes" and invited any international organization to inspect "any part of Romania, any military base" to settle the controversy.

"We will not practice torture," he said, adding that the CIA planes will continue to land because "Romania cooperates with the United States."

Branigin reported from Washington.