Blunkett opposes return of Guantanamo prisoners

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, has warned Tony Blair not to insist that British prisoners held by the US at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba be returned to the UK.

The Home Secretary and other government ministers would rather see the British suspects taken out of the American military base and put on trial in a civil court in the US. They fear that it might be impossible to convict or even charge any of the men in British courts because of the conditions under which they have been held for 18 months.

Mr Blair is due to raise the issue of the detained Britons when he meets President George Bush in Washington this week.

The Prime Minister is under intense political pressure to demonstrate that he can win the same rights for British detainees as the Americans granted to one of their own citizens captured in Afghanistan, who was tried in a civil court.

Two Britons, Feroz Abbasi, 23, and Moazzam Begg, 35, are among six suspects due to appear in front of secretive military tribunals, which could sentence them to death. Several other Britons have been held at Guantanamo Bay since early 2002.

A motion signed by 218 MPs, including the former cabinet ministers Robin Cook and Clare Short, has called on the Government to arrange for all the British suspects to be repatriated and tried in Britain.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, has also told his American counterpart, Colin Powell, that the men should be handed over to the British authorities. However, the proceedings at the US military base are controlled by Mr Powell's rival, the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

But, privately, Mr Blunkett and others in the Government would prefer to see the men tried by US civil courts, rather than have them extradited to the UK, because they fear the evidence against them could not be used in British courts. It is not even certain that anything they did in Afghanistan contravened UK law.

One minister said: "Everyone recognises that there is a genuine problem. We wouldn't, probably couldn't, try them, but some of these guys are terrorists ... Do we want them walking free here?"

Roger Godsiff, MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook, where Mr Begg's family lives, said: "I'm not asking for these citizens to be sent back ... but what I cannot accept - full stop - is one of my constituents being hauled up in front of a tribunal. If the Americans go ahead with this, there will be a reaction in this country."

Mr Abbasi's MP, Geraint Davies, said: "If there is no evidence that would be accepted in a British court of law, then so be it. We must uphold the rule of law."