Geneva ? The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday it had given the Bush administration a confidential report critical of U.S. treatment of terror suspects detained at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But the Red Cross, which is the only independent monitor allowed to visit the facility, refused to confirm or deny a New York Times account that the ICRC report described the psychological and physical coercion used at Guantanamo as “tantamount to torture.”

A prominent New York attorney working closely with Defense Department lawyers who have seen the report, however, confirmed the characterization and said it raised new concerns about doctors violating medical ethics in pointing out prisoners’ weaknesses to interrogators.

“The military lawyers by and large don’t agree with the conclusion that it’s tantamount to torture,” said Scott Horton, chairman of the international law committee of the New York City Bar Association.

But, Horton told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, the military lawyers “think it’s correct for the ICRC to be aggressive. They think that’s their role.”

The Bush administration rejected the ICRC accusations that detainees were in any way abused at Guantanamo.

“We strongly disagree with any characterization that suggests the way detainees are being treated is inconsistent with the policies the president has outlined,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said on an Air Force One flight.