Anti-terror battle has led to widespread HR abuse

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention report criticized in particular the "imprecise definitions of crimes" in anti-terror legislation and the use of military tribunals and special courts of law by certain states.

The UN group's criticisms come as the United States finds itself under increasing fire for its extrajudicial procedures for detainees held at its Guantanamo military base on Cuba.

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Washington has rejected the UN report, saying the working group is not competent to judge the matter.

"States do not have the right to controvert principles as fundamental as the presumption of innocence... and the right to be judged within a reasonable period of time by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal," the report, written and released in French, read.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, a significant number of people from several countries have been arbitrarily detained as a result of new anti-terror laws, the UN experts continued.

Some have been held in secret locations set up for presumed terrorists, and others -- notably those at Guantanamo -- have held been without trial and deprived of the rights due to either indicted criminals or prisoners of war.

The UN experts said Washington did not have the right to detain indefinitely the hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo -- mostly men captured during US military operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

"In no case may an arrest -- made under laws of exception -- be prolonged indefinitely", they said in the report.

Last week US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld defended the indefinite detention without trial or charges of the Guantanamo men, saying that their cases would be reviewed on an annual basis and that those deemed no longer a threat would be released.