Britain and US in talks over closing Guantanamo Bay

The US has asked the British government for advice in preparation for closing down the notorious prison camp at Guantanamo Bay by sending hundreds of alleged al-Qa'ida fighters back to their home countries, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

Senior Bush administration figures have asked British officials for advice on how to hand alleged terrorists over to regimes with a reputation for torture and extra-judicial killings, such as Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Pakistan.

President Bush is under intense and growing international pressure to close down the notorious camp in Cuba, where more than 500 alleged Islamist terrorists and Taliban fighters are being held without trial.

Legal sources in the US have confirmed that senior Bush officials want to send most of these men, including senior aides to Osama bin Laden and at least five British residents, to be imprisoned in their home countries - a process that could start within weeks.

Last week, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asked British ministers about the Government's controversial attempts to deport terror suspects living in the UK back to their home countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

So far the Government has signed three deals with Lebanon, Jordan and Libya in which they undertake not to abuse terror suspects sent back from Britain.

The Government was forced to release more than a dozen alleged al-Qa'ida figures from high-security prisons last year after the House of Lords ruled ministers had breached the Human Rights Act by detaining the men without trial. The US is not bound by similar legislation, but it feels stung by the intense global criticism of its conduct at Guantanamo Bay.