Rights groups have criticized a new US detention center in Afghanistan that will replace Bagram prison, saying it still falls short of basic legal standards.

"The Bagram detention facility serves as a symbol of the US operating outside a proper legal framework in Afghanistan," Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director Sam Zarifi said.

The new Parwan Detention Facility, which has been built at the Bagram military base at a cost of $60 million, will be able to hold up to 1,100 detainees.

Rights groups say Parwan does not address the issues of arbitrary detention or allowing detainees to be tried under Afghan law, Agence France-Presse AFP reported.

"Given the real problems with the existing Afghan judicial system, the US and Afghan governments must immediately begin to establish a long-term solution that respects the rights of the detainees to have their cases heard in a court of law," said Zarifi.

Bagram, which opened shortly after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, has earned a reputation for brutality, as well as being part of a secret system of detention and torture of suspects.

In 2002, the Bagram detention facility drew international outrage over the deaths of two detainees. No reporters have so far been allowed into the old prison.

The new prison has been built in the shadow of prisons at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Cuba's Guantanamo Bay, where US authorities have detained people accused of involvement in terrorism without charge or trial.

AGB/TG/DT