US anger over 'torture file' ruling

US government officials said they were "not pleased" at a decision to reveal information surrounding the treatment of UK citizen Binyam Mohamed by the CIA.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the Government was "deeply disappointed" by the High Court judgment and immediately announced an appeal.

Speaking at a press briefing in Washington DC, US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said a "confidential channel" should remain if intelligence sharing was to continue "to the fullest extent possible".

In their ruling in London, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones said there was "overwhelming" public interest in disclosing the seven paragraphs of material redacted from their original judgment on the Mohamed case last year.

"As the risk to national security, judged objectively on the evidence, is not a serious one, we should restore the redacted paragraphs to our first judgment," they said.

The judges added: "It cannot be suggested that information as to how officials of the US government admitted treating Binyam Mohamed during his interrogation is information that can in any democratic society governed by the rule of law be characterised as secret or as intelligence."

Mr Mohamed, 31, was still being held at Guantanamo Bay awaiting trial at the time of the court's original judgment in August last year, but has since been released and has returned to the UK.

He is fighting to prove he was tortured and that the British authorities facilitated his detention and knew about the wrongdoing to which he was being subjected.

The judges have held it was clear - from the fact that the UK intelligence services sought to interview Mr Mohamed during his detention and supplied information and questions for his interviews by others - "that the relationship of the UK Government to the US authorities in connection with Binyam Mohamed was far beyond that of a bystander or witness to the alleged wrongdoing".