The US is preparing to free a small number of prisoners from its high security jail at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, according to US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld.
It would be the first release of inmates who are no longer considered a terrorist threat.
"There are some people likely to come out of the other end of the chute," Donald Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon in Washington.
Officials said the releases could take place within days.
Rumsfeld said the prisoners were being vetted to make sure they were not candidates for prosecution, no longer of any intelligence value, and not a threat to the United States and its allies.
The United States is holding 598 men from 42 countries who it has labelled as enemy combatants, saying it may legally hold them until the end of hostilities. It has not made clear whether that means the end of the campaign in Afghanistan - or the global war which is expected to go on for years.
Some of the men have been held for nearly a year since being rounded up during the air war that opened the military campaign in Afghanistan in October 2001.
One official said that for safety reasons, no transfer will be announced until the prisoner or prisoners have safely arrived wherever they are being sent.
Officials fear al-Qaida will track down anyone who is released and try to get information from them, by force if needs be, on things like US interrogation methods, security procedures, details of other detainees and any potential weaknesses in security at Guantanamo.
Until now, transfers into Guantanamo have been one-way trips for the vast majority of prisoners. The only ones acknowledged sent out by the US government so far have been a man with mental health problems and prisoners determined to be Americans, who were sent for detention in the US instead.
PA