The parliament approved a report that implicated 13 EU members, including Britain, Germany and Sweden, and called for an "independent inquiry" to be considered.

The European deputies said they regretted "that European countries have been relinquishing their control over their airspace and airports by turning a blind eye or admitting flights operated by the CIA."

The report was endorsed, after sifting through 270 proposed amendments, by 382 representatives, another 256 voted against it and there were 74 abstentions.

As well as condemning "the acceptance and concealing" of the clandestine prisoner transfers by the secret services and governments of certain European countries, the report expressed grave doubts over assertions by nations that they were unaware of the practice.

The parliament, the EU's only directly elected body, called for pressure to be put on the concerned governments "to give full and true information" about the operations and "where necessary to start hearings and commission an independent investigation without delay."

The US administration acknowledged last September that the CIA was operating a secret detention program outside the United States.

'Not a couple of episodes'

The program began in late 2001, following the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, and continued until late 2005, when questions began to be asked in the press and elsewhere, according to the EU report.

Italian MEP Claudio Fava, who headed the parliamentary inquiry, cited 1,245 CIA "extraordinary rendition" flights to and from European airports or through European airspace.

"If we put all the eye witness accounts together, then we can see that it was not a question of a couple of episodes, but of a wider practice," Fava told German public television station ARD.

Pressure on the vote

With almost half the total EU members implicated, there were reports of pressure from national governments on the MEPs ahead of the vote, as well as splits within the parliamentary groupings.

The report named 13 EU nations -- Austria, Britain, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden -- along with non-EU countries Bosnia, Macedonia and Turkey.

Over six months, the parliamentary commission took evidence from 130 people, including government officials, secret service agents, judges, lawyers, journalists and NGO representatives.

Call for enquiries

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini urged member states to hold national inquiries into the matter.

"The governments need to reveal the truth, even if the truth is disturbing," he told the parliament.

Magistrates and governments should hold administrative enquiries and punish officials found guilty of colluding with illegal CIA action, he said.

Günter Gloser, European affairs minister for Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said the EU parliament's report included conclusions "that go very far."

He deplored that some "assertions are swiftly transformed into facts" and added that "from our point of view, more moderated statements would be preferable."

The parliamentary vote came at a moment when judges in Germany, Italy and Spain are investigating suspected transfers of terrorism suspects.

In Germany, news has focused on two cases. In one, a German of Lebanese descent, Khalid el Masri, was taken in late 2003 by the CIA from Macedonia to a prison in Afghanistan, in a case of mistaken identity.

Murat Kurnaz, a German-born Turk who lived in Bremen, spent four years in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, after having been held in Afghanistan. He told the European parliamentary committee that he had been abused by two German soldiers.