Ministers serving in the government of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder insist they only became aware of Khaled el-Masri's kidnapping in 2003 after he had already been freed. The closed-door inquiry in Berlin is investigating the truth of this.

El-Masri, a Muslim of Lebanese origin who lives in southern Germany, is currently suing US authorities for damages.

He says he was imprisoned by US agents in December 2003 in Macedonia and tortured in Afghanistan before being released five months later. In Afghanistan, el-Masri says he was questioned by a man called "Sam" who spoke perfect German.

Steinmeier, who was the head of the Chancellery under Schröder, said accusations that the German government had aided the kidnapping or "complicity looked away" were "scandalous."

Pressure to find terrorists

Steinmeier described the period after the September 11, 2001 attacks as one of enormous pressure.

"We needed to collect information as quickly as possible about other potential attacks," he said.

However, Steinmeier emphasized that this did not give authorities free reign to "kidnap and torture."

"We didn't blindly follow the US government," Steinmeier said. "When I headed the chancellery, the principles of constitutionality and civility applied in this (post-Sept. 11) period."

A report in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper on Thursday said Steinmeier had been informed in 2005 that el-Masri had been held by the CIA but had failed to pass the information on to lawmakers.

Fischer also denies knowledge of CIA abduction

The foreign minister at the time of el-Masri's kidnapping, Joschka Fischer, who now teaches at Princeton University in the US, also gave evidence before the hearing on Thursday.

Fischer, making one of his few public appearances since resigning his parliamentary seat earlier this year, termed the abduction "a very serious matter" and said that he didn't know about el-Masri's detention until after his release.

The inquiry has already heard that the then-US ambassador to Berlin, Daniel Coats, informed then German interior minister Otto Schily on May 31, 2004 that el-Masri had been mistakenly detained, then freed.

Fischer said he had not learned of this meeting from Schily but from reading about it in the Washington Post newspaper. He said he had then checked the veracity of statements made by el-Masri and his lawyer.

However, Fischer said the relationship between the US and Germany was extremely tense at the time -- not least because several of the Sept. 11 hijackers had been living in Germany before the attacks.

"The main reproaches are those that aren't said out aloud, such as, 'We have you to thank for Sept. 11.' The effect of that on foreign relations shouldn't be underestimated," Fischer said before the hearing.

Fischer emphasized that the German government's objections to US authorities regarding the handling of terror suspects fell on deaf ears.