U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted on Wednesday that American authorities mishandled the case of torture victim Maher Arar, but stopped short of an apology.

"Our communications with the Canadian government was by no means perfect. In fact it was quite imperfect," Rice told a Congressional committee hearing in Washington, D.C.

When asked by Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., whether she knew Arar was tortured for a year, Rice chose her words carefully.

"I am aware of claims that were made," she replied.

Rice's comments were interpreted differently by Canadian and American officials.

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins issued a press release later in the day, saying Rice commented on communication problems between the two countries that were addressed "head-on" in January 2004.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Stephen Harper welcomed Rice's remarks as an "encouraging" step forward.

"We have raised this issue on many occasions with the Americans and we hope that the U.S. government will act to fully address this matter," Harper said during question period.

Harper noted the Canadian government has already made an official apology to Arar and his family.

Arar said he was "pleased" the U.S. administration has acknowledged his case was mishandled.

"I fully support the very important work of the congressional committees which are trying to get to the bottom of the extraordinary rendition program," Arar said in a statement, referring to the U.S. practice of sending terror suspects to third countries for interrogation.

Rice's comments came six days after a committee of U.S. congressional legislators issued apologies to Arar.

In late September 2002, U.S. authorities detained Arar, who was on a flight from Zurich to Montreal. Accusing him of being a terrorist, they sent him to his native country of Syria instead of to Canada.

Arar spent almost a year in Syrian custody. Over that time, the telecommunications engineer said Syrian agents tortured him into making false admissions about being an al Qaeda operative.

In the fall of 2006, an inquiry led by Justice Dennis O'Connor exonerated Arar, and the Tory government issued an apology and $11.5 million in compensation.

The RCMP was found to have given U.S. authorities incorrect information about Arar.

He still has a lawsuit pending against the U.S., with arguments set for Nov. 9 in New York.

Julian Falconer, who represented Arar in his lawsuit against the Canadian government, told CTV Newsnet that Arar should not have to go to court before the U.S. does the right thing.

"It shouldn't take a lawsuit at this stage," said Falconer on Wednesday. "What it should be about is an admission of wrongdoing, an apology, and acknowledgment of his innocence."

Falconer noted that Wednesday's statement from Rice is a significant shift in rhetoric from eight months ago -- when U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins still claimed that Arar was a threat to the U.S.

"When one compares that to the language today by the Secretary of State, there's obviously a different tune being sung," he told CTV Newsnet.

"But what I want to emphasize is they're doing it in inches, and that is simply not right."

Alex Neve, the Secretary General of Amnesty Canada, said it's up to the U.S. congressional committee and the Canadian government to maintain the pressure on the administration, "to make sure that we move beyond today and really start to get some answers."

"The bottom line is nothing has changed for Mr. Arar today. He still can't travel to the

United States. It's the U.S. government's position still that he shouldn't be allowed to bring his lawsuit," Neve told CTV Newsnet. "He still doesn't have any answers or explanations as to what happened. So really on that level, nothing has changed today."

Syria's 'horrific' record

At today's hearing, Delahunt told Rice that Syria's record on torture, as described in the State Department's annual reports, can only be described as "horrific."

"The report references 38 varieties of torture that they utilize, particular in the process of securing information," he said.

"My question is, given their record, why did the United States rendite Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, over his objections, to Syria without informing the Canadian government?"

Rice said, "This was a case in which there were some concerns expressed ... our effort to untangle what happened here took quite some time."

When asked if the U.S. sought diplomatic assurances from Syria that Arar would not be tortured, Rice said, "Frankly, at this point, my own memory of some of the details of this case has faded a bit."

Arar remains on a U.S. no-fly list, designed to keep those suspected of terrorist involvement off commercial aircraft. He would like to be removed from the list, and the Canadian government supports him.

"We and the Canadians do not have exactly the same understanding of what is possible for Mr. Arar in the future in terms of travel and the like," Rice said.

The Globe and Mail published a report on Saturday indicating that a man who links Arar to a terror training camp in Afghanistan is serving time in a Minnesota prison for immigration fraud. That man's allegations are one reason why Arar remains on a no-fly list, the paper reported.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told a hearing last week -- one in which Arar testified by video -- that he had seen the entire classified file relating to Arar as recently as Oct. 16 and saw nothing in it to persuade him that Arar should have been tortured or kept on the no-fly list.

With a report by CTV's Tom Clark in Washington