The U.S. Justice Department has issued a new memo on prisoner interrogation, replacing a controversial document outlining how to question prisoners without violating U.S. and international anti-torture statutes.

The opening sentence of the memo released Friday says "torture is abhorrent both to American laws and values, and to international norms."

The document replaces a controversial memo issued in August, 2002, which defined torture in such a way that critics said only the most severe types of interrogation techniques would not be permissible.

That memo became controversial after several cases of prisoner mistreatment in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba became public.

The new document contains a broader definition of torture, describing it as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental" is inflicted on a person to get information or a confession.