A Federal Court hearing into the handling of Afghan detainees was suspended on Thursday after government lawyers said Canada has signed a new agreement with Afghan officials.

The new agreement is said to allow Canadians greater access to prisoners they have handed over to Afghan authorities.

Amnesty International in Canada and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association had applied for an injunction to stop the Canadian Forces from passing any more detainees into Afghan custody, but proceedings were stopped temporarily until further details of the agreement were released.

The groups have said the detainees are at grave risk of being tortured after they are handed over.

Affidavit filed before proceedings began

Lawyers for the federal government filed an affidavit that informed the court about the new agreement on Thursday morning before proceedings began.

The groups had challenged the existing detainee transfer agreement between the Canadian Forces and Afghan authorities, saying they wanted the welfare of the detainees assured before more were handed over.

They also wanted the court to consider whether the transfers contravene the Geneva Conventions, which govern the treatment of prisoners of war, and other international laws.

Under the new agreement, Canadian government personnel, including embassy officials, will have "full and unrestricted access" to detainees handed over to Afghan officials by Canadian soldiers.

The Canadian government, as well, will be notified of any change in circumstance to the detainees, and the detainees will be kept by Afghan authorities in a limited number of facilities to make access to the prisoners easier for Canadian officials.

The agreement says that Canadian government officials will be able to interview the detainees in private without Afghan authorities present.

But Amnesty International, one of the groups that had applied for the injunction, said the new agreement was not good enough because monitoring alone is not the answer.

"You don't prevent torture in a country where it is rampant and systematic, as it is in Afghanistan, by sending in monitors on an occasional basis. It simply doesn't work," Alex Neve, spokesman for Amnesty in Canada, told Reuters.

Timing of agreement 'peculiar'

Neve said the timing of the affidavit "only emerged at the last minute" and seems "peculiar," considering how long the controversy has been brewing.

"It’s been frustrating and surprising throughout these last two weeks to see when and by whom and in what venue developments have been announced," he said.

The timing of the new deal was also questioned in the House of Commons on Thursday.

"This agreement was conveniently signed just hours before the start of the federal court proceedings this morning," said Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh. "Even the judge is said to have remarked on the curious timing on this particular agreement.

"Did the foreign affairs minister push forward the signing of this critical international agreement in order to save this government from a public embarrassment before our courts?"

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay responded that his government worked as quickly as it could to address the concerns that began to swirl last week about the treatment of detainees.

"We've worked actually very quickly," MacKay said. "When the issues came forward we took action to enhance the agreement."

The Conservative government said the new deal builds on the agreement signed in 2005 between Canada and Afghanistan, allowing the prisoner transfers to take place.

"The 2005 agreement on detainees is still in force," government House leader Peter Van Loan told the Commons on Thursday. "We will be working with Afghanistan government to help them carry out their responsibilities vis-a-vis the Afghan transferred prisoners. We've made improvements and we've implemented those improvements to the 2005 agreement."

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said MPs must be allowed review and debate the new deal in Parliament.

"Can they table that agreement immediately in the house?" Dion asked Conservative MPs.

Van Loan did not answer the question directly but said MPs are encouraged to read over the new agreement.

Urgency lost

The CBC's Paul Hunter said in Ottawa that the Federal Court judge decided that, because of the new agreement, the application made by Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association for an injunction to stop the transfer of prisoners was no longer an urgent matter.

Hunter said that the new agreement, signed in Kabul, is actually a supplement to an earlier arrangement with Afghan authorities worked out by the previous Liberal government.

It's the second time the government has announced it has a new agreement on Afghan detainees.

Last week, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said officials had reached an agreement that would allow access to the prisoners, but the next day, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said a deal had not yet been formally worked out.

The new agreement was announced even though Harper has assured the House of Commons that the old deal was working well. The Harper government has also insisted that allegations of abuse are false, even though no investigation has been conducted.

Last week, allegations surfaced that at least 30 detainees handed over to Afghan authorities by Canadian soldiers might have been abused while in detention. However, the Conservatives have given confusing and contradictory answers to questions about the alleged abuse.

With files from the Canadian Press