The government has to date refused to make public any information regarding the stopovers in Malta by airplanes owned by Central Intelligence Agency front companies linked to the controversial practice of extraordinary rendition. One of the planes in question has been linked to secret negotiations regarding Libya’s nuclear weapon development programme held between a CIA-MI6 joint team and its Libyan counterparts in December 2003.

Extracts from a book to be published at the end of July, Shopping for Bombs by BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera, have linked the Malta stopover of one of the most notorious planes used for the secret transport of alleged terrorist suspects to clandestine detention centres, to fly US and UK negotiators to Libya at the end of 2003, just before Libya “came in from the cold” and disclosed its weapons of mass destruction programme.

The plane in question is the 32-seat Boeing 737 owned by Premier Executive Transport Services with tail number N313P, which has been shown on numerous occasions to have been engaged in the kidnapping and transport of terrorism suspects to secret locations.

Writing in Shopping for Bombs, Mr Corera describes how the Boeing had, in December 2003, flown CIA and MI6 personnel from the Northolt military airfield near London to Libya for negotiations. Mr Corera writes that the plane had dropped off the agents in Libya and flown back to its “waiting position” in Malta where the unmarked plane was photographed by a number of Maltese plane spotters. The plane then flew from Malta International Airport Malta to Libya to collect the negotiators after what was thought to have been unsuccessful talks with their Libyan counterparts.

The MI6 and CIA agents had been taken around Libya to a series of sites and the Libyans had revealed large amounts of uranium and hexafluoride, but had refused to admit that the materials were earmarked for nuclear programmes aimed at weapons development.

But a breakthrough had come at the last minute and the plane, which had just flown out of Malta, was a witness to Libya’s ultimate confession of developing a nuclear weapons programme.

Mr Corera writes, “On the final day of the trip, 11 December, it rained in Tripoli. At 3pm there was a sudden flurry of activity. The Libyans admitted that the purpose of their programme was to develop a nuclear weapon.

“It was still dark when the exhausted visitors arrived at the airport to depart next morning. The unmarked 32-seat Boeing 737 was waiting on the tarmac, having arrived from its waiting position in Malta. As the team approached the plane, the Libyans said they had something for them. They handed over a stack of six or seven brown envelopes about a foot high.

“On board the aircraft, the team opened them. Inside was a nuclear weapons design and nearly all the instructions required to manufacture and assemble the components.”

Following the admission, diplomatic negotiations ensued and an announcement from Gaddafi on Libyan State television that Libya had agreed to quit its weapons programme and was to hand over its weapons materials came shortly afterward on 19 December.

While Mr Corera’s findings provide an explanation for the presence of one of the planes owned by CIA front companies and linked to extraordinary rendition, the presence of other similar planes at Malta International Airport remains unexplained.

This newspaper, plus a number of NGOs and governments, has confirmed the stopover of planes owned by CIA front companies in Malta.

In addition to the stopover of the Boeing 737, this newspaper has uncovered the presence of six other planes implicated in CIA practices and their presence on Maltese soil remains unexplained.

These, in short, were: a De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter in August 2005; a Lockheed L-100 Hercules in March and August 2004; a Gulfstream jet in December 2004; a Casa CN235 CT7 in May 2004; a Casa C212-CC Aviocar in December 2004; and a Casa CN-235-300 in August 2005.

While Malta has not been linked to any webs of extraordinary rendition identified by the Council of Europe in its investigation into the practice, an official explanation for the stopovers, including that of the Boeing 737, are still awaited from the government.