US softens line on status of detainees

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In the face of fierce international protest, the US may be edging towards acknowledgement that the Geneva Convention applies at least partially to the 158 captives being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

After President George Bush's senior National Security Council advisers failed to resolve the issue, he said he would make the decision, after he had "listened to all the legalisms". That is a big shift from the administration's original position, announced on 18 January, that the detainees – said to come from 25 countries – were neither prisoners of war nor entitled to the protections of the conventions.

The dispute went public at the weekend with the leak of a White House memo indicating that Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, had asked Mr Bush to reconsider his decision. Two factors seem to have been behind his request, which exposed a split within the administration. The first is a worry that rejection of the conventions would be seen abroad as another example of the US riding roughshod over an international agreement.

The other, and more persuasive, is that if Washington ignores the Geneva Conventions in this instance, it will place at risk any of its special forces or covert operatives who may be taken prisoner in this or future conflicts.

That argument has resonated at the Pentagon, and brought Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defence round to Mr Powell's view. Vice-President Dick Cheney and John Ashcroft, the Attorney General are opposed to concessions.

But even Mr Powell agrees that captured al-Qa'ida fighters will not be formally declared prisoners of war. In Mr Bush's words, "these are killers, these are terrorists, they know no country". The most that is likely is US agreement on a tribunal, as laid down in the convention, to determine whether captives qualify for protection. Beyond that, says Mr Bush, Washington will observe "the spirit" of Geneva. But it will not accept any curtailment of its right to interrogate the prisoners.

The Pentagon says their fates will be decided on an individual basis.