US defense chief James Mattis still favors the current rules banning the use of torture in prisoner interrogations, the Pentagon said Thursday, the day after President Donald Trump reaffirmed his belief it "absolutely" works.

In a written response to questions during his confirmation hearing, Mattis said he supported using the US Army Field Manual, which forbids torture, as the single standard for military interrogations.

"That thinking has not changed," Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said. "His commitment to upholding the Geneva convention, the law of armed conflicts, international law and US -- that remains the same."

The army's rules on interrogations apply across the US government, including the Central Intelligence Agency, which had employed waterboarding -- a form of near-drowning -- and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" on terror suspects after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The methods, widely denounced as torture, were banned in 2009 shortly after then president Barack Obama took office.

In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, Trump said he would follow the advice of Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, and CIA director Mike Pompeo on whether to lift the ban.

"But do I feel it works? Absolutely, I feel it works."

On another issue, Davis said the Pentagon had received "no direction or order" to put in place "safe zones" in Syria as Trump insisted he would do in the ABC interview.

"Our focus right now on Syria is what it has always been -- degrading and defeating ISIS," Davis said, using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State group.

Establishment of safe zones for refugees fleeing the fighting in Syria had been considered during the Obama administration.

But the US military warned at the time that protecting them would require a major deployment of aircraft and troops.

Trump says torture works but will follow CIA, Pentagon advice
Washington (AFP) Jan 25, 2017 - US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he thinks waterboarding and other interrogation techniques widely seen as torture -- and prohibited by law -- "absolutely" work, but would defer to his CIA and Pentagon chiefs on whether to reinstate them.

When asked about waterboarding in an interview with ABC News at the White House, Trump said it was necessary to "fight fire with fire" in the face of the beheadings of Americans and other atrocities by Islamic State militants.

The comments from the new Republican president -- which echo statements he made on the campaign trail -- come as reports suggest his administration may be considering the reinstatement of secret CIA "black site" prisons overseas.

"When they're chopping off the heads of our people, and other people... when ISIS is doing things that nobody has ever heard of since medieval times, would I feel strongly about waterboarding? As far as I'm concerned, we have to fight fire with fire," he said.

But he said he would rely on the advice of Pentagon chief James Mattis and Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo.

"I'm going to go with what they say," Trump told ABC. "And if they don't want to do, that's fine. If they do wanna do, then I will work toward that end. I want to do everything within the bounds of what you're allowed to do legally."

"But do I feel it works? Absolutely, I feel it works."

The New York Times reported on a three-page draft order reauthorizing the "black site" prisons where suspects detained after the 9/11 attacks of 2001 were subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- including waterboarding.

A Trump spokesman said the draft seen by the newspaper did not originate at the White House.

In February 2016, Trump said "torture works" and pledged to bring back waterboarding and "much worse."

However, in December, after meeting with Mattis, Trump said he was "impressed" with Mattis's argument that building trust and rewarding cooperation by detainees worked better than waterboarding.

During his confirmation hearing before a Senate committee, Pompeo promised he would "absolutely not" comply with any order to revive the "enhanced interrogation techniques" employed by the CIA after 9/11.