By GLEN OWEN

The row over the use of British air bases for American "torture" flights flared up again last night following evidence that a plane linked to the transport of terrorist suspects landed in Britain on Wednesday.

A Gulfstream IV private jet, which has been identified by Amnesty International as a CIA-linked plane implicated in so-called "rendition," arrived at RAF Northolt in West London just hours before the Government was forced into a humiliating U-turn on the practice.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband admitted to the Commons on Thursday that two US rendition flights landed at a British air base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 2002 - despite previous repeated denials from Tony Blair and Jack Straw.

The Gulfstream jet, registration N134BR, flew from Morristown, New Jersey in the US to Northolt on Wednesday, returning on Friday afternoon. Planespotters also photographed it landing in Luton in January.

There is no suggestion that the jet, which has undergone two changes of registration since 2001, was carrying prisoners. But it was listed in a 2006 Amnesty report into rendition as being owned by a CIA front company and thought to have been used for the transfer of terrorist suspects.

Last night Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group Liberty, called for an inquiry into rendition flights to clear up lingering suspicions about British complicity in secret CIA activity.

"It should not be down to planespotters and citizen activists to keep track of these activities," she said.

"There should be a full independent UK inquiry into our role in State-sponsored terrorism - the only investigation so far, by the European Parliament, was blocked at every turn by the British authorities."