VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The Canadian military has stopped transferring detainees in Afghanistan to the control of Afghan authorities due to concern over torture allegations, according to a government letter released on Wednesday.

Canada stopped the transfers in November but did not disclose the change in policy until this week, according to Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, which released the letter.

The groups had sued the federal government over the transfer policy.

Canada's Department of Justice said in the letter it halted the transfers after receiving a report in November from a Canadian monitoring group with a credible allegation of mistreatment at an Afghan detention facility.

The allegation was under investigation and "Canada will resume transferring detainees when it believes it can do so in accordance with its international legal obligations," the department said in the letter.

Canada has 2,500 combat troops in the southern city of Kandahar, a region where the Taliban are concentrated. (Reporting David Ljunggren and Allan Dowd, Editing by Rob Wilson)

AlertNet news is provided by