In findings on US observance of the UN's main political rights' convention, the committee said it had "credible and uncontested" information that the United States had detained people "secretly and in secret places for months and years."

"The state party should immediately abolish all secret detention and secret detention facilities," it said, echoing a similar demand in May by the United Nations' Committee on Torture.

The committee said it could not accept Washington's argument that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the United States has signed, does not apply to anyone held outside US territory.

The covenant spells out basic individual rights, including equality before the law, protection against torture and inhumane treatment and arbitrary arrest.

"The state party (the United States) should review its approach and interpret the covenant in good faith," said the committee, which was subjecting Washington to its first review since 1995.

The US report to the committee, submitted in October, was seven years late.

The UN body also expressed concern at the past use of interrogation techniques like prolonged stress positions and isolation, hooding, sleep or food deprivation, that may be a form of torture and welcomed assurances they were no more used.