The UK government was last night accused by the European Parliament of being complicit in the CIA's transfer of terror suspects to secret prison camps for interrogation.

While the 76-page report by MEPs gave no direct proof the CIA ran prison camps in Europe - the original claim that prompted their year-long inquiry - it said temporary secret detention facilities "may have been located at US military bases" on the continent.

The report claimed between 2001 and 2005 there were at least 1245 so-called "ghost flights" plus an unspecified number of military flights for the same purpose. Airfields in Britain, Germany and Ireland were used most.

The UK government has already acknowledged as many as 170 CIA flights have in recent years used airfields in Britain, including several in Scotland, to refuel; something, it has pointed out, is legal under international law.

It has only ever acknowledged two flights since 1997 have been cleared for the rendition of prisoners, again legal, but has denied any have been used for so-called "extraordinary rendition", an illegal activity where torture is used. Washington also vehemently denies using or condoning torture.

Last June, the Council of Europe (CoE), the human rights watchdog, claimed Britain was part of a "spider's web" of alleged abuse. Prestwick airport was singled out as being among those airfields used for the refuelling of the "ghost flights".

The CoE claimed authorities in 14 European countries "actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities", including the UK, Germany, Italy and Turkey, while others "ignored them knowingly or did not want to know".

In September, George W Bush. US President, unexpectedly confirmed the CIA had held terror suspects at secret overseas locations.

According to the MEPs' report, Britain had been "aware of a secret CIA prison network" before Mr Bush's statement.

Passed by 382 votes to 256 with 74 abstentions, the Strasbourg document echoed the CoE's report from last year.

Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat MEP, said evidence given to the European parliamentary inquiry suggested several EU governments either colluded actively with the CIA's rendition operations or simply "turned a blind eye" to them.

Italian Socialist MEP Giovanni Fava, who drafted the document, added: "This is a report that doesn't allow anyone to look the other way. We must be vigilant that what has been happening in the past five years may never happen again."

However, centre-right MEPs - the largest group in the EU parliament - claimed the report was motivated by anti-Americanism and that the investigation merely duplicated the CoE's earlier inquiry.

They had demanded significant changes to the wording and, consequently, some of the original criticism was toned down. Condemnation of Britain for supposedly not co-operating with the investigation was removed at the insistence of Labour MEPs.

Yesterday's report expressed "serious concern" about the 170 stopovers at UK airfields, which, it claimed, "on many occasions came from or were bound for countries linked with extraordinary rendition circuits and the transfer of detainees".

It also expressed "outrage" at a legal opinion from Michael Wood, former legal adviser to the Foreign Office, who said "receiving or possessing" information extracted under torture was not in itself against international law banning torture "in so far as there is no direct participation in the torture". He refused to give evidence to MEPs.

Previous investigations have claimed scores of rendition flights have used Scottish airports, including Glasgow, Edinburgh and RAF Leuchars as refuelling points, with as many as 400 for the UK as a whole.

It has been claimed that the CIA used a plethora of commercial shell companies to operate the clandestine flights, including one dubbed "the Guantanamo Bay Express".

Amnesty International, the human rights campaign group, welcomed the MEPs' report but urged member states to carry out their own independent investigations.

Green MSP Chris Ballance MSP said: "This verifies what we suspected all along: Scottish authorities did indeed turn a blind eye to operations, which aided and abetted torture and serious human rights violations.

"The police took no significant action despite a barrage of overwhelming evidence strongly indicating that the law had been broken. There should now be a full inquiry and measures put in place to ensure no Scottish airport is ever used again for such flights."