GENEVA, 1 December 2004 — The International Red Cross said yesterday that US officials have failed to address concerns about some significant problems in the treatment of terror suspects detained at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But the neutral International Committee of the Red Cross, which is the only independent monitor allowed to visit the facility, refused “to publicly confirm or deny” whether details in a New York Times article were from its reports to US officials about its findings during its Guantanamo visits.

The article said the ICRC has determined the US military used psychological and physical coercion “tantamount to torture.”

It said ICRC delegates found during a June visit to Guantanamo that US authorities had devised and refined a system to break the will of the prisoners, using humiliation, solitary confinement, temperature extremes and force positions.

“We have voiced concern including in public that there are significant problems which need to be addressed at Guantanamo Bay in terms of conditions and treatment of the persons there,” said Antonella Notari, chief spokeswoman for the ICRC.

“We continue our discussions with the US authorities in this regard,” she added, but said the agency was sticking to its policy of discussing the details of its findings with US officials because it found the confidential approach achieved results.

On Monday, a Pentagon spokesman said Red Cross officials have “made their view known” that the indefinite detention of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay amounts to torture.

Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said, “It’s their point of view,” but it is not shared by the Bush administration.

He noted that the administration believes it has the legal right to detain such suspects until the end of the war on terrorism because they are unlawful combatants not subject to the protections of the Geneva conventions.

Di Rita said he could not comment on specific Red Cross reports because they are provided to the US government on condition they be kept confidential.