Australia was an ''integral'' element of the potentially illegal detention of prisoners of war at a secret Iraqi desert prison in 2003, according to a US military document.
The revelation has led to an Australian human rights organisation investigating such secret prisons to claim that the Australian military may have been complicit in war crimes by handing detainees over to the so-called ''black site''.
The revelations - which the Defence Department was last night denying, saying they were only ''providing security'' when the detainees were handed over - would be the first time the Australian military has been implicated in the black sites.
Such secret prisons, which became infamous after the 2003 Abu Ghraib scandal, were used by a US military unit codenamed Task Force 6-26 to interrogate enemy fighters thought to hold important information.
According to a 2006 New York Times investigation, detainees at such prisons were beaten, water-boarded, spat on and tortured.
Up to this point Australia has never been accused of involvement in such incidents.
However, The Guardian published yesterday an article which states that the Australian SAS squadron of 150 men working in Iraq, codenamed Task Force 64 by the US, was an ''integral part of H1's operation''.
The claim is based on a ''US field inquiry report'', which according to The Guardian reveals that a British special forces unit and Task Force 64 ''were an integral part of operations at H1. Both units were under US tactical control''.
As of last night, Fairfax has been unable to see the US report.
The revelation was initially sparked by the death of a 43-year-old Iranian named Tanik Mahmud, who was captured by Australian SAS soldiers in April 2003 along with 63 other Iraqis and Syrians.
The men were handed over to British soldiers and loaded on to Chinooks during the night of April11. Last year Fairfax revealed that Mahmud, who died along with another detainee aboard one of Chinooks that night, may have been beaten to death by two British soldiers.
What was not known was where they were being taken to. But The Guardian newspaper reported yesterday the 64 men were taken to a secret prison, codenamed H1, in the middle of Iraq's western desert .
H1 was an Iraqi air force base captured by coalition forces early in the war and was used to launch operations deeper into Iraq.
Asked whether ''Australian troops ever sent prisoners or detained persons to H1'', Defence issued a one word response: ''No.''
However, a declassified Australian military document from 2003 which deals with Mahmud's death suggests otherwise.
The document states the 64 detainees ''were handed over to the UK extraction FE and UK aircrew for transit to an EPW handling facility at H1.''
FE is a military term for a group of soldiers. EPW means enemy prisoners of war.
When presented with that document, Defence said it would clarify, but was unable to by press time.
The Guardian also quoted a former British soldier who reportedly worked at H1 for several months.
He described being involved in collecting prisoners from allied special forces ''under total darkness'' and, upon returning to H1, handing the prisoners over to ''other authorities''.
A source familiar with an investigation into Mahmud's death said the ''other authorities'' were known to be the CIA and the UK's equivalent agency, the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6.
The prison was so secret that its existence was not disclosed to Britain's most senior military lawyer in Iraq in 2003, Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholas Mercer.
He told The Guardian he was ''extremely surprised'' to learn of its existence.
Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholas Mercer said, ''It appears from the information disclosed that some prisoner operations were being conducted, deliberately or otherwise, outside of the chain of command.''
Fairfax has confirmed senior Australian military officers in Iraq were unaware of the secret facility at H1.
The chief executive of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Edward Santow, said a royal commission should examine Australia's role in secret prisons.
''The Australian government must explain the Australian military's role at the secret facility known as 'H1' in Iraq, and at any other secret prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan,'' Mr Santow said.
He said international humanitarian law had clear rules regarding capturing and detaining prisoners of war.
''If the 'H1' facility was a secret prison, hidden from the Red Cross and with no external oversight, this would breach the Geneva Conventions and international law,'' he said. ''These new revelations cast further doubt on the Australian military's compliance with international law.''
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