LONDON (AFX) - Human rights organisation Amnesty International has demanded that the European Union investigate whether the US has run illegal prison camps in Poland.

Referring to reports of camps in Poland, Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary-general, said: 'We should not be sitting here trying to speculate whether it is Poland and whether the Polish government will do something about it.

'I think the European Union should investigate it.'

She also called for the US to open up the Guantanamo Bay detention camp on Cuba to the United Nations.

Poland has formally denied that it has on its territory any of the alleged secret US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prisons holding Al-Qaeda suspects.

The Washington Post has alleged that the CIA was running a network of secret facilities for captured terror suspects in eight countries, outside the reach of the US justice system.

The American rights group Human Rights Watch alleged that Poland and Romania had cooperated with the CIA, based on flight records and other evidence.

Amnesty International was launching a three-day conference in London on human rights, detentions and the prevention of torture, bringing together former Guantanamo detainees.

Khan said: 'Poland is a member of the European Union, which has certain standards about human rights which it imposes on those who wish to become members of the European Union and it now needs to impose on the members, those who already are members of the European Union.

'I think there is a huge responsibility on the UK, holding the presidency of the European Union right now, to push and discover what is actually happening in Poland.'

Khan also called for the US to grant the UN free access to Guantanamo detainees.

Khan said: 'If the US has nothing to hide, they should open up Guantanamo.

'Denying meaningful access to those held in Guantanamo Bay is totally unacceptable,' she added.

UN officials have been trying to visit the camp since it opened in January 2002. A deadline passed at midnight Friday without the US and UN human rights monitors agreeing on conditions for an inspection.

'Guantanamo has become the epicentre of a shadow justice system,' Khan said.

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