The Council of Europe, which represents 46 countries, said on Nov. 23 that it was opening a formal inquiry into reports the U.S. secretly held terrorist suspects in Europe and used European countries as transit points for the detainees.

There were ``suspicious movements by 31 aircraft allegedly belonging to entities with direct or indirect links to the CIA, and believed to have been used by the CIA to transport prisoners in the `war against terrorism,''' investigator Dick Marty said today in an e-mailed statement. He is the chairman of the council's parliamentary assembly legal affairs committee.

The Financial Times, citing U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, reported on Nov. 3 that the CIA operated covert interrogation centers in Poland and Romania. The Polish and Romanian governments denied the reports. The Washington Post first published the allegations that the CIA was operating a secret detention center in Eastern Europe.

Marty proposed enlisting the help of Eurocontrol, the organization that coordinates the continent's air-traffic safety, to help trace the flights, for example from Afghanistan. He also suggested using images from the European Union's Satellite Center, starting with those made in early 2002, to help detect possible detention centers on the ground.

The Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, France, is the continent's oldest political organization, founded in 1949. Its aims include defending human rights, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law. It also aims to develop continent-wide agreements to standardize member countries' social and legal practices, according to its Web site.

To contact the reporter for this story:
Kevin Costelloe in Brussels at kcostelloe@bloomberg.net