Jeb Bush says he will consider allowing the US to resume torture in some circumstances.

The former Florida Governor was asked this week whether he would keep or repeal President Barack Obama’s executive order banning ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques used by the CIA.

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But the presidential hopeful declined to rule out using torture to interrogate prisoners.

“I don’t want to make a definitive, blanket kind of statement,” Mr Bush told an audience of Iowa Republicans.

The CIA has previously used methods such as water boarding, sleep deprivation, nudity and humiliation on al-Qaeda detainees – methods that would not be allowed in the US military on prisoners of war.

Asked how he felt about torture, Mr Bush said it was inappropriate but added it was still justified to keep the country’s citizens safe.

“Now we’re in a different environment,” the candidate and brother of former President George W Bush said.

“That’s why I’m not saying in every condition, under every possible scenario.”

Mr Bush said his brother had phased out torture methods during his presidency.

A US Senate report released last year cited CIA records in concluding that the techniques were more brutal than previously disclosed, that the CIA lied about them, and that they failed to produce unique, life-saving intelligence.

The CIA and its defenders take issue with the report.

– with Agencies