U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has been visiting Egypt, where he told reporters that the United States will not send terrorist suspects to countries that practice torture.
Gonzales spoke in Cairo Saturday after meeting with Egypt's interior and justice ministers.
He said the U.S. has an obligation to make sure that terrorist suspects who the U.S. sends to other countries are not tortured there. (The practice is called rendition.)
Human rights groups and released terrorist suspects have said that the U.S. secretly moved detainees to various European and Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt. Detainees in Egypt have frequently alleged they were tortured.
Gonzales said he planned to establish an office in Cairo to work with Egyptian officials but he did not elaborate.
He praised Egypt for progress toward democracy.
In April and May, Egyptian police brutally crushed peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations. Several hundred protesters are still being detained.
Under Egypt's emergency laws, the state can detain individuals for long periods without charging them with crimes. The U.S. has criticized Egypt for the most recent detentions.
Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.