HIGHLIGHTS: American Plan Tantamount to Killing the Measure After 10 Years of Drafting||UN General Assembly Takes up Treaty Later This Year||U.S. Envoy Says Treaty Incompatible with U.S. Law||U.S. Embarrassed by Widespread Criticism of its Treatment of Guantanamo Bay Prisoners||STORY: The United States on Wednesday lost a bid to block a draft anti-torture treaty that would require U.N. inspections of prisons such as the U.S. base in Cuba set up to hold Taliban and al Qaeda detainees. (Read photo caption)

A U.S. proposal to sidetrack the treaty by having negotiations reopened was defeated 15-29, with eight abstentions, in the U.N. Economic and Social Council. The convention's backers said the plan would have been tantamount to killing the measure after 10 years of drafting.

The 54-member council then went on to approve the treaty by a vote of 35-8, with 10 abstentions, sending it on to the 189-member U.N. General Assembly, which will take it up later in the year.

To come into force, the pact must then be signed and ratified by at least 20 governments, a number set by the treaty itself.

"It is a big defeat for the United States. It's really hard to understand why the U.S. is working against human rights and against so many of its allies," said Joanna Wechsler of New York-based Human Rights Watch, which backs the treaty.

U.S. envoy Mike Dennis argued Washington's plan would provide for "a fuller discussion" of the draft treaty, saying it was incompatible with U.S. law because it would open state prisons to inspections without the states' consent.

He said it also was procedurally flawed because it had been approved this year by a majority vote of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission rather than by consensus -- in effect requiring unanimous approval.

U.S. EMBARASSED BY WIDESPREAD CRITICISM OF ITS TREATMENT OF GUANTANAMO BY PRISONERS

"Our proposal is not designed in any way to halt discussion of the issue," he said.

But Elyne Whyte, the vice foreign minister of Costa Rica, the treaty's chief sponsor, dismissed the U.S. proposal as "a death sentence" for the pact.

Among those supporting the U.S. proposal were China and Cuba, among the top targets of past U.S. human rights criticisms. Others backing Washington included Australia, Egypt, India, Japan, Libya, Pakistan and Russia.

Lining up against Washington were the entire European Union and most Latin American, Caribbean and African states.

The U.S. stand was the latest in a wave of go-it-alone actions that have infuriated Washington's closest allies, including rejection of the Kyoto pact on global warming and the treaty creating a new International Criminal Court aimed at combating genocide and war crimes.

The anti-torture pact would supplement an existing Convention against Torture which went into force in 1987 and has been ratified by 130 countries including the United States in 1994.

But the Bush administration has been embarrassed recently by widespread criticism of its treatment of alleged Taliban and al Qaeda detainees at a U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A heated international debate erupted after the release of photos of the tightly manacled and blindfolded detainees, who were captured when the United States invaded Afghanistan following Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

PHOTO CAPTION

The United States lost a bid to block a draft anti-torture treaty that would require U.N. inspections of prisons such as the U.S. base in Cuba set up to hold Taliban and al Qaeda detainees, July 24, 2002. Detainees in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area guarded by Military Police at Camp X-Ray at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during in-processing to the temporary detention facility on January 11, 2002. (Shane T. Mccoy, U.S. Navy via Reuters)