THE HAGUE, 09/06/06 - The United States treated the Netherlands coolly for some time, according to Foreign Minister Ben Bot. This occurred after he had demanded clarification following reports of illegal flights and prisons of the CIA and of torturing by the Americans.

Bot said last November during a debate in the Lower House that if it should emerge that the US government had lied about secret CIA prisons, that could have "consequences" for Dutch contributions to military operations. At that time, the cabinet had not yet decided whether it wanted to participate in the mission in Afghan's southern province of Uruzgan.

Bot warned the US at the time "not to beat about" with the truth. When US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a statement some weeks later about the allegations, Bot termed her answers "not satisfactory" and signalled "a pungent discussion" with Rice during a NATO meeting in Brussels. During this private dinner meeting on 7 December, things went unusually vehemently, said Bot yesterday in the Lower House. "I was at the time the fiercest of all".

The day after the dinner, Bot had expressed himself as "very pleased" with Rice's explanation "that the US keeps to the international treaties." But relations then temporarily cooled. "I was given the cold shoulder by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for some time," Bot revealed yesterday.