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 British newspaper, citing a US military document.

The revelation has led to an Australian human rights organisation investigating such secret prisons to claim that the Australian military might have been complicit in war crimes by handing detainees over to the so-called ''black site'' known as H1.

Illegal detention ... Australian troops were "integral" to the operation of a secret Iraqi desert prison. Credit:Reuters

The revelations - which the Defence Department last night denied, saying it was only ''providing security'' when the detainees were handed over - would be the first time the Australian military has been implicated in the black sites.

Black sites were secret prisons, which became infamous after the 2003 Abu Ghraib scandal, and were used by a US military unit codenamed Task Force 6-26 to interrogate enemy fighters.