The Taoiseach has told the Dáil that the Government cannot and will not allow any aircraft involved in so called 'extraordinary renditions' to land at any Irish airport.
Bertie Ahern added that Ireland could not and would not facilitate the torture of prisoners by any state.
Earlier, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte claimed that there had been 50 landings by CIA planes at Shannon Airport.
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, held talks in Berlin earlier today.
The meeting was overshadowed by the controversy over covert CIA flights allegedly using European airports to transport terror suspects to secret prisons.
Ms Merkel told a news conference that democratic rules had to be adhered to, but she added that intelligence services also had to be able to do their job.
Ms Rice said the US 'does not condone torture' as it was against US law and its international obligations. The US Secretary of State is on a four-state tour of Europe.
Germany's opposition parties are demanding an investigation into the claims that more than 400 CIA flights used German airspace for the transport of detainees.
Before she left Washington, Ms Rice admitted that terror suspects were flown abroad for interrogation, but denied they were tortured.
She also defended the practice known as rendition - where suspects are moved by plane from one country to another for questioning.
