UNITED NATIONS - The Bush administration's efforts to plead innocence to charges of using torture before a key United Nations committee have been complicated by a new report from an influential human rights group suggesting otherwise.

The United States continues to use torture against prisoners in and outside the country, Amnesty International, a London-based human rights group has charged.

In a new report released Wednesday, the group blasted the U.S. government for abusing prisoners and said it is creating a "climate of torture."

Amnesty International has sent its report to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, which is due to meet in Geneva later this week to see whether the U.S. government is in violation of the Convention Against Torture, which prohibits torture in all circumstances.

The 10-member Committee is tasked with monitoring the compliance of countries with their obligations under the treaty. During its three-week meetings, it will also be looking into reports on Georgia, Guatemala, Qatar, and Togo.

The U.S. government claims that it is against the use of torture under any circumstances, including war and public emergency, but a number of human rights groups assert that the U.S. government has resorted to torture methods at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and its other military-run prisons around the world,

"The U.S. government is not only failing to take steps to eradicate torture, it is actually creating a climate in which torture and other ill-treatment can flourish," said Curt Goering of Amnesty International's U.S. chapter.

The group asserts that measures taken by the U.S. government in response to widespread torture and ill-treatment of terror suspects held in U.S. military custody "has been far from adequate."

"This is despite evidence that much of the ill-treatment stemmed directly from official policy and practice," says Goering.

The report points out several cases where detainees held in Afghanistan and Iraq have died under torture, yet no U.S. agent has been prosecuted for "torture" or "war crimes."

"The heaviest sentence imposed on anyone to date for a torture-related death while in U.S. custody is five months--the same sentence you might receive in the U.S. for stealing a bicycle," said Goering.

That case involved a 22-year-old taxi driver who was hooded and chained to a ceiling while being kicked and beaten until he died, according to Amnesty.

The group also expressed its concern over excessive force by police, use of electroshock weapons, isolation of prisoners in "super-max" security prisons, and abuses against women in the U.S. prison system.

The U.S. last appeared before the UN Committee Against Torture some six years ago to respond to charges referring to the use of electroshock weapons and excessively harsh conditions in super-maximum security prisons.

"The U.S. has long taken a selective approach to international standards, but in recent years, the U.S. government has taken unprecedented steps to disregard its obligations under international treaties," said Javier Zuniga director of Amnesty International's Americas Program.

Zuniga fears that the U.S. attitude could "threaten the whole framework of international law."

The rights group says it wants the U.S. government to clarify to the Committee that under its laws, no one, including the president, has the right or authority to order the torture of detainees under any circumstances, and that any one who does so, including the president, will have committed a crime.

In a report released last February, UN investigators on torture had called on the U.S. government to close down Guantanamo and "refrain from any practice amounting to torture, or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment" of prisoners.

But in its response, Washington slammed the UN, noting that the UN experts had declined an invitation to visit Guantanamo because they would not be allowed to interview prisoners.

Last month, in a statement, Human Rights Watch, a New York-based independent group, also raised serious questions about the role of U.S. military leadership and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld in incidents of torture of prisoners in U.S. Custody.

The rights group said Rumsfeld could be criminally liable under federal or military law for the abuse and torture of Mohammad al-Qahtani, a prisoner held on terrorism charges at Guantanamo in 2002 and 2003.

The U.S. plans to defend itself before the UN Committee Against Torture by sending a 30-member delegation to Geneva. The committee hearing on the U.S. behavior will take place on May 5 and 8.

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