White House Close to Guantánamo Decision

Growing embarrassment at senior levels within the Bush administration over Guantánamo Bay is driving an intensifying internal debate on how and when the camp should be closed.

Key advisers to president George Bush, such as defence secretary Robert Gates and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice acknowledge that the continuing controversy over the camp is damaging the US interests and standing.

"We don't have any desire to be the world's jailer... I don't think anyone wants to see Guantánamo open one day longer than is necessary," Ms Rice said this month.

Mr Gates admitted in March that the credibility of the legal system at the camp, in Cuba, had been tainted by reports of torture. He suggested detainees should be tried on US soil.

The Guantánamo camp has been used to hold hundreds of foreign terrorist suspects without charge or trial since the September 11 2001 attacks and has become a worldwide symbol of perceived US disregard for human rights. About 375 foreign nationals are currently detained there.

Administration officials suggested this week that a consensus was developing in favor of scrapping the camp soon. "The push (for closure) has reached a high point," one official said.

Pressure to act is also coming from Congress. Steny Hoyer, the Democrat majority leader in the House of Representatives, described Guantánamo this week as "an international disgrace that every day continues to sully this great nation's reputation".

The administration's embarrassment was compounded by two separate court rulings this month saying that military tribunals operating at Guantánamo did not have jurisdiction over the detainees.

A previous Guantánamo system for prosecuting detainees was found to be illegal by the supreme court last year.

Denying reports that a closure order was imminent, a White House statement said: "The president has long expressed a desire to close the Guantánamo facility in a responsible way ... A number of steps need to take place before that can happen, such as setting up military commissions."

John Bellinger, a state department legal adviser, said the administration understood the camp had become "a lightning rod for international and domestic criticism". But he said foreign critics had failed to offer a credible alternative.

Defense officials claim at least 22 of the former Guantánamo detainees have resumed terrorist activities against the US and its allies.

Concerns are have also been expressed about where the detainees would be held if they were moved to US soil and the possible security threat they might pose if they were released after trial.