Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier has issued a statement in an effort to pacify allies angry over a training manual for Canadian diplomats that lists the U.S. and Israel as countries where prisoners risk torture and abuse.

Bernier said the manual "contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies."

Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier, right, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week, has been forced to clarify why a Canadian diplomatic document listed Israel and the U.S. as sites of possible torture.
(Amos Ben Gershom/Associated Press)

"I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the department's torture awareness training," he said in a statement released Saturday. 

"The manual is neither a policy document nor a statement of policy," he said. "As such, it does not convey the government's views or positions."

Bernier said he has directed the manual to be reviewed and rewritten, but he did not provide details.

The torture awareness training manual was inadvertently released on Friday to lawyers working on a lawsuit involving allegations that detainees were abused in Afghanistan.

The document singles out the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay as a site of possible abuse. It also names Israel, Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Syria as places where inmates could face torture.

U.S. ambassador to Canada David Wilkins told the Associated Press that it's "absurd" and "offensive" to place the United States on the same list along with countries like Iran and China.

Michael Mendel, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, said Israel's Supreme Court "is on record as expressly prohibiting any type of torture."

With files from the Canadian Press