Canada formally asked the United States on Thursday to remove former Canadian terror suspect Maher Arar from its no-fly list -- a day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice publicly admitted Washington bungled the case.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said he has formally written his U.S. counterpart, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, to strike Arar's name from any "lookout" lists that would prevent him from flying south of the border.

In late September 2002, U.S. authorities detained Arar, a Canadian citizen, 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.

Rice suggested yesterday that Arar would remain on U.S. security watch lists -- despite the admission that U.S. officials mishandled the case and despite a Canadian inquiry which cleared Arar of any links to terrorism.

Day said Thursday that the government has taken every opportunity to convince U.S. authorities that Arar is not a threat to U.S. security.

"At every diplomatic level from the prime minister to the president, from our foreign affairs minister to the secretary of state, from me to the head of homeland security, we have asked that Mr. Arar's name be removed from those lists," Day said during question period.

But opposition critics said Day's response to the U.S. was "not good enough."

"Justice O'Connor did a thorough investigation and cleared Mr. Arar, yet he remains on the U.S. no-fly list and this government is doing nothing," said Liberal MP Yasmin Ratansi.

The Globe and Mail published a report last week 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

Arar has repeatedly denied that he ever attended an Afghan training camp or even travelled to the country.

An inquiry led by Justice Dennis O'Connor formally cleared Arar of any links to terrorism. Arar was later given $10.5 million in government compensation. He is also suing the U.S. government over his ordeal.