Tony Blair has slammed "absurd" calls for records to be kept of all US flights through British airspace.
The comments came as Charles Kennedy quizzed the prime minister on the issue of CIA 'rendition' flights landing in the UK.
During prime minister's questions, the Liberal Democrat leader asked Tony Blair to explain the purpose of terrorists being transported to a third country if it was not to be tortured or mistreated.
But Blair stressed the government was "completely and totally opposed to torture or ill treatment in any set of circumstances".
He said that rendition does not mean torture, "as the US secretary of state has made clear".
Kennedy argued that the UK was under a moral and legal obligation to investigate why the flights had been allowed to use the UK for 'rendering' suspects.
In response, Blair read from a statement released earlier in the week which said the government was not aware of any requests since September 11, 2001 for a request for a rendition flight through UK territory or airspace.
And he added that US government flights bring visitors into the UK "all the time".
Blair said the Lib Dem demands were "quite extraordinary sometimes".
And he said the idea that every US government flight should be investigated was "completely absurd".
