The report, by the CIA's inspector general, says the agency played down the abuses and deliberately suppressed information.

Central Americas Correspondent Paul Greste says report confirms suspicions

"The Honduran military committed hundreds of human rights abuses since 1980, many of which were politically motivated and officially sanctioned," says the report.

Although the report finds no evidence that the CIA participated in torture sessions and other abuses, it says the agency's reporting of those abuses was inconsistent.

Those reporting lapses, it says, "precluded CIA headquarters from understanding the scope of human rights abuses" and caused the US Congress to under-estimate the problem.

For example, the CIA deliberately suppressed information on a shadowy paramilitary group, the Anti-Communist Liberation Army of Honduras, which kidnapped, tortured and executed left-wing activists.

'Report a cover-up'

An independent human rights monitor, Ramon Custodio, welcomed the report but he said the CIA is still hiding its activities.

Mr Custodio said there is evidence that CIA agents were present at torture sessions and that the report may in fact be an attempt to conceal CIA involvement.

Throughout the 1980s the Reagan administration openly backed Honduras's right-wing government, and poured arms and economic aid into the country.