A Commission of the Organisation of American States has called on Chile to overturn an amnesty which protects those suspected of torture during the military dictatorship.

The Commission says the Chilean legislation is not in line with an existing Pan-American Convention on Human rights.

A BBC correspondent in the region says Chile is likely to reject the call.

In the past it has said that new enquiries into human rights abuses would open old wounds.

Our correspondent adds that the Chilean government is also under pressure from the armed forces, which still wield considerable power.

During the seventeen years following General Pinochet's military coup more than three-thousand people died, one thousand of those in detention