Pressure continued to mount yesterday for the British government to come clean over its role in the CIA rendition and torture programme.

Former security minister Admiral Lord West has admitted there may have been the “odd case” where British agents were aware of torture occurring.

He said torture was “abhorrent” and was not used by the British because “we have to be whiter than white” in the battle against international terrorists.

But he acknowledged it was possible individual agents knew what their US counterparts were doing to detainees.

He told the BBC: “Looking back historically, if you are an agent embedded in some foreign country and this was going on, it was quite difficult for them to extricate themselves even though they weren’t implementing that torture.

“So I’m sure there may be the odd case where an agent was aware what the Americans were doing, but that has now been sealed off because they are very clear now what the position is.”

This week saw the publication of 500 pages of a damning US Senate intelligence committee report into the abuse and torture of detainees by the CIA.

Following the report’s publication questions were raised over whether the British government sought to cover up “embarrassing information” about its alleged complicity in torture after details emerged of meetings between British ministers and officials and the committee.

Details of 24 meetings since 2009 between British politicians and diplomats and members of the committee were disclosed following a Freedom of Information request.

Lord West was among the ministers and officials listed as having met US politicians, along with Home Secretary Theresa May.

And yesterday Downing Street admitted that British spies spoke to their US counterparts to discuss potential redactions to the damning report on “national security grounds.”

Legal action charity Reprieve spokesman Donald Campbell said: “We already know that the UK was complicit in the CIA’s rendition and torture.

“What we don’t know is why there is no mention of that in the public version of the Senate’s torture report.

“Did they lobby to ensure embarrassing information about the UK was ‘redacted’ or removed from the report?”