London: Key passages of the report into the CIA's torture programme were censored at the request of British spies, Downing Street admitted on Thursday night, raising concerns that the UK's hand in the post-September 11 interrogation programme was covered up.

David Cameron's spokesman admitted that the Security Services had asked their American counterparts to censor a US Senate report into the brutal interrogation of terror suspects at secret foreign prisons. It is understood the requests were granted.

The admission is a major volte-face, with Downing Street a day earlier insisting that it had no knowledge of requests for redactions.

Were the British involved? The Senate report detailed the CIA's secret prisons and "enhanced interrogation techniques". Photo: Reuters

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister's official spokesman, when asked what redactions had been sought, repeatedly said: "None whatsoever, to my knowledge."

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John Brennan, the head of the CIA, defended the "abhorrent" interrogation programme, saying the information helped locate Osama bin Laden.

He said there was "strong concern" among foreign spy chiefs that the report was about to be made public.

"Covert was something that they hoped was going to remain such," he said.

There were growing demands for a judge-led inquiry into the possibility that MI6 officers assisted with the "kidnap and torture" of al-Qaeda suspects. The 499-page report by the US Senate committee contains no references to MI5, MI6 or Diego Garcia, the British island known to be used in rendition flights.

However, the summary report contains redactions of key words and passages, including the names of countries.

"My understanding is no redactions were sought to remove any suggestion that there was UK involvement in any alleged torture or rendition," the Prime Minister's deputy spokesman said.

"There was a conversation with the agencies and their US counterparts on the executive summary. Any redactions sought there were done on national security grounds in a way we would have done with any other report."

Under the "control principle" convention, intelligence agencies do not reveal intelligence supplied by allies without consent.

Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Thursday he would support an inquiry into whether British spies were complicit in CIA torture of terrorism suspects, if other investigations failed to uncover the truth.

Mr Clegg said that while he was sure British intelligence agents were not involved with torture now, allegations that spies had known about the mistreatment of detainees by US authorities and others had to be fully examined.

"I, like everybody else, want the truth out there," he told LBC radio. "Torture cannot, will not, and is not being used under any circumstances by British agencies or indeed on our behest."

According to a US Senate report, the CIA misled the White House and public about its harsh interrogation of detainees after the September 11 attacks and acted more brutally and pervasively than it had acknowledged.

Britain's foreign and domestic security services, known as MI6 and MI5, have for years been accused of colluding in the ill-treatment of suspected militants.

Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who founded the all-party group on extraordinary rendition, said: "The Senate's report, and the further reports of redactions, greatly strengthen the case for a full and detailed inquiry into allegations of British facilitation of kidnap and torture, led by a judge.

"Until that work is completed, until the scope and limits of our involvement are known, allegations - whether true or not - will continue to be made, corroding public confidence."

Telegraph, London; Reuters