Washington - The United States will no longer hold terrorism suspects in secret prisons and plans to shut down any facilities still in operation, CIA Director Leon Panetta said Thursday, marking the latest reversal of terrorism policy by the new administration.

President Barack Obama has already ordered the eventual closure of the controversial prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and repealed some of the harsher interrogation tactics used under president George W Bush.

The Central Intelligence Agency's secret prisons came under sharp condemnation from human-rights groups for their treatment of al-Qaeda terrorist suspects. A report leaked last month from the International Committee of the Red Cross said the CIA's interrogations amounted to torture.

"CIA no longer operates detention facilities or black sites and has proposed a plan to decommission the remaining sites," Panetta said in a letter to staff that was released on the CIA's website.

"I have directed our agency personnel to take charge of the decommissioning process and have further directed that the contracts for site security be promptly terminated."

The CIA reserved the right to hold suspects for a brief period before handing them over to military authorities.

Panetta said the CIA had already stopped all of the so-called "enhanced interrogation" practices in place during the Bush administration.