Amman  - Jordan's largest political party, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), on Thursday demanded an "independent investigation" into charges by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) that prisoners delegated to Jordan by the CIA had been exposed to torture.

"We demand an independent, non-government and transparent investigation into the HRW charges about the existence of secret jails in Jordan, where the US administration sent suspects for interrogation and torture," the IAF Secretary General Zaki Bani Ershaid said in a statement.

Bani Ershaid was responding to a HRW report which alleged that the CIA sent to Jordan at least 14 detainees between 2001 and 2004 for interrogation.

The report by the US-based human rights group, entitled "Double Jeopardy: CIA Renditions to Jordan," claimed that the country's General Intelligence Department had systematically used torture and "cruel or inhuman treatment against the detainees rendered by the CIA to Jordan."

"The Jordanians are not prepared to accept their country being turned into an international detention centre, where law can be broken and humanity of people is encroached upon," the IAF chief said.

The Jordanian Minister of Media Affairs and Communication has rejected the HRW report as "incorrect and full of fallacies." (dpa)