But following a report Nov. 2 in The Washington Post that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has been running secret prisons in Eastern Europe, the Interior Ministry in Prague says it has never been asked to detain those still suspected of terrorism.

In news reports last week, Czech and foreign media conflated the two issues: the U.S. asylum request and The Washington Post's story.

"The United States did not ask the Czech Republic to host a facility to hold prisoners," said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Radka Kovárová. Poland and Romania also deny they have secret CIA jails.

A month ago the U.S. Embassy in Prague asked the Czech government to grant asylum to a number of Muslims of Chinese origin formerly suspected of being terrorists, said embassy spokesman Jan Krc. He did not say how large the group was.

The men were not found to have any links to the al Qaeda network and were to be released from the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, where the United States detains hundreds of men captured during the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions.

The group faces persecution if they return to China, according to Krc.

The U.S. overture to the Czechs about asylum was "a humanitarian request because we clearly need to place these people somewhere," Krc said. He added the intention was that the ex-prisoners would have as much liberty as anyone else given asylum.

However, Bublan turned down the Americans' request, as did 10 other European states approached by the United States, including Germany and the Netherlands, said Kovárová. "Minister Bublan evaluated the whole issue and, bearing in mind potential security hazards, said he would not see offering asylum to these persons as appropriate."

Meanwhile, The Washington Post's report that the CIA runs prisons in eight countries — which it did not name — with the aim of interrogating detainees outside the reach of the American justice system stirred concern from watchdogs, who said such jails would contravene European Union rules on human rights.

Krc said that the U.S. Embassy's asylum request was unconnected with the news story on secret CIA jails.