The United Nations says Libya's former rebel fighters still hold about 7,000 people in prisons and makeshift detention centers.

A report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon circulated Monday says that many detainees have no access to due process and some of them have reportedly been subjected to torture and ill treatment.

The report notes that sub-Saharan Africans, suspected of being mercenaries hired by the former regime of Moammar Gadhafi, make up the majority of those detained.

Mr. Ban's envoy to Libya, Ian Martin, told the Security Council that the new Libyan leadership does not deny there have been human rights abuses. But he stressed that the interim government, which will be in power until elections for a national congress are held next June, must show that correcting this problem must be its top priority.