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Dozens of planes linked to the CIA's rendition of terror suspects landed regularly at Danish airports, said a report reaching Stockholm from Copenhagen on Friday.
Past surveys have identified eight occasions when planes linked to alleged secret prisoner transports used Danish airports since 2001, according to a report the Ministry of Transport recently presented to parliament.
The latest report found that some 37 planes owned by CIA shadow companies landed on Danish soil during the same period. In addition, more than a hundred flights have passed through Danish airspace.
According to the report, Denmark has twice reminded the U.S. that it expected the CIA to respect Danish laws prohibiting the transport of abductees. The U.S., in return, has given its assurances that the Danish airspace was not violated.
The number of landings in Denmark underscored the need for an investigation, said Morten Tergaard of the opposition's Social Liberal party. He noted that the U.S. has admitted that it has used secret prisons around the world to house terror suspects.
Tergaard called for a commission that would investigate the accusations of secret flights, but Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated that the government has no plans to initiate an investigation.
"I haven't heard anything about that matter and won't discuss it," Rasmussen said to the Copenhagen Post.
The Danish People's Party, which provides the coalition government with its parliamentary majority on a number of issues, also rejected the opposition's calls for an investigation.
"The Americans know Denmark's position, they are our allies, and I don't feel a need for a special investigation of the flights, " Soen Espersen, political affairs spokesperson for the Danish People's Party, told national broadcaster TV2.
(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2006)
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