Vilnius - The Lithuanian parliament said Wednesday it would fast-track an official enquiry into whether the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operated a secret prison near Vilnius until
2005.

The decision announced by the National Security and Defense Committee came a day after Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said she had "indirect suspicions" that allegations about the facility could have substance.

Chairman Arvydas Anusauskas said the committee would seek special permission to conduct a probe that extends beyond what its existing remit allows.

If the secret prison did exist, Lithuania should "apologize and promise that it will never happen again" Grybauskaite said on Tuesday after a meeting in Vilnius with the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, Thomas Hammarberg.

"Both Lithuania and the United States must provide answers to these questions," Grybauskaite said.

Last week the Lithuanian president ruled out the possibility that NATO member Lithuania would be prepared to take any inmates of the US's controversial Guantanamo Bay prison until the matter of the secret CIA facility was resolved.

Rumours that a secret CIA prison operated in Lithuania as part of US President George W Bush's "war on terror" have circulated locally for years but were given fresh impetus in August by a report by US broadcaster ABC News, which cited anonymous CIA sources.

Other broadcasters subsequently claimed the secret CIA facility operated out of the former Soviet Rudininkai military base south of Vilnius.(dpa)