Britain and other US allies have demanded closure of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but have also blocked efforts to let some prisoners return home, according to a press report today.
The Washington Postreports today that British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett last week issued a demand for the military prison to close, calling it "unacceptable" and adding that it fuels Islamic radicalism.
The newspaper also reports that officials in London recently rejected a US offer to transfer 10 former British residents from Guantanamo to the United Kingdom, arguing that it would be too expensive to keep them under surveillance.
Britain has also staved off a legal challenge by the relatives of some prisoners who sued to require the British government to seek their release, the report said.
Although all British citizens in Guantanamo were freed starting in 2004, Britain has not allowed former legal residents of the country to return. Germany and other European allies, which have spoken out against Guantanamo, have also refused to accept prisoners from the facility.
Human rights groups have condemned US practices at Guantanamo, where detainees have been held indefinitely without charge.
Some 335 prisoners have been transferred out of Guantanamo since the prison camp's creation in January 2002, and another 110 of the 440 still at the jail have been declared eligible for transfer or release, the Pentagon said.
It has already freed most of the European citizens.
Meanwhile, Germany is investigating claims by a Turkish man with German residency who says he was abused by German soldiers in Afghanistan before being sent to Guantanamo.
Murat Kurnaz, who spent nearly five years at the prison before his August release, said in a magazine interview that two German soldiers had pulled him by the hair and slammed his head into the ground in front of US soldiers in Afghanistan.
"Bodily harm is a crime. The state prosecutors in Potsdam have therefore launched an investigation against unknown perpetrators," Mr Kurnaz's lawyer Bernhard Docke said.
"Simultaneously the defence ministry has set up an internal working group to clarify the allegations. This commission has stated its interest in personally questioning Kurnaz about the allegations," Docke added.
Mr Kurnaz has also said he suffered abuse at Guantanamo and interrogation techniques including sexual humiliation, water torture and the desecration of Islam.