LONDON -- Rights Group Amnesty International voiced concern in its annual report released Tuesday about the fate of some 1,200 people detained in the United States since September 11 suicide attacks, AFP reported.

The group also complained about continued U.S. use of the death penalty.

Amnesty's report criticized the conditions under which the more than 1,200 people -- mostly non-U.S. nationals of Middle Eastern or South Asian origin -- have been held.

"AI's concerns relating to measures following the 11 September attacks included reports of incommunicado detention, ill-treatment in custody, government powers to detain foreign nationals indefinitely on the basis of mere suspicion of involvement in 'terrorism,' new powers to monitor communications between lawyers and detained clients on national security grounds and the potential use of secret evidence," the report said.

The group was also critical of President George W.

Bush's decision to try some suspected terrorists before military commissions.

"Trials before such courts would violate the principle of nondiscrimination and international fair-trial standards," the report said.

The organization also asked for investigations into possible violations of international humanitarian law by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

AI was also critical generally of treatment of other prisoners within the United States.

"There were reports of police brutality and unjustified police shootings and of ill-treatment in prisons and jails," the report said.

A total of 749 people have been executed in the United States since the Supreme Court ruled to permit executions in 1976.

"The U.S.A. continued to violate international standards by using the death penalty against the mentally impaired, individuals who were under 18 at the time of the crime, and those who had received inadequate legal representation," the report said.

AI noted that since the beginning of U.S. President George W. Bush's presidency in January, two federal prisoners has been executed, the first sought by federal authorities since 1963.

Timothy Mcveigh, convicted for his role in the bombing of a U.S. Federal building in Oklahoma City in which 168 people died, was executed. Juan Garza was also executed despite the intervention of the inter-American commission on human rights, which has jurisdiction over the United States as a member of the Organization of American States.

The United States also executes adults for crimes committed while they were still minors. Gerald Mitchell was executed in Texas in October for a murder committed when he was 17 years old. Two others, Napoleon Beazley in Texas and Antonio Richardson in Missouri, received stays of execution at the last minute, but could still be executed.