The US Justice Department on Wednesday asked a federal judge to review the rules for handling 113 appeal cases by `war on terror` detainees being held at the US naval base prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to court documents.

President-elect Barack Obama said he would shut down the `war on terror` internment camp at Guantanamo Bay and rebuild `America`s moral stature in the world,` in a major interview aired Sunday.

`I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that,` the Democrat, who takes office on January 20, told the CBS program `60 Minutes.`

A Paris court on Monday is to hear an appeal by five former French detainees at the US prisoner camp in Guantanamo against their one-year jail sentences on terrorism charges.

The five men were each given a one-year prison sentence and suspended sentences of up to four years by a lower court on December 17 last year.

Researchers studying the US war-on-terror military jail at Guantanamo Bay are urging US president-elect Barack Obama to set up a commission to shed light on controversial practices there.

Barack Obama`s presidential transition team said Tuesday it was working though the complicated issues involved in his campaign pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay `war on terror` camp in Cuba.

Two more detainees have been transferred from the US `war on terror` prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, this time to Algeria, the Pentagon said Monday.

`These detainees were determined to be eligible for transfer following a comprehensive series of review processes,` it said in a statement.

Hearings began Thursday for six Algerians who are fighting their detention at Guantanamo Bay -- the first such challenge in a federal court since the war-on-terror US prison opened in 2002.

Six Algerians detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for the last seven years are to become on Thursday the first prisoners to challenge their continued imprisonment in a US federal court.

A Yemeni man accused of being an aide to Osama bin Laden has been convicted by a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and has been sentenced to life in prison, US authorities announced Monday.

A 39-year-old Yemeni accused of being an aide to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was sentenced to life in prison Monday by a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a Pentagon spokesman said.

An alleged Al-Qaeda propagandist was sentenced to life in prison Monday after being found guilty of terrorism charges by a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a Pentagon spokesman said.

A Yemeni national who allegedly served as an Al-Qaeda propagandist has been convicted by a panel of military officers in the second `war on terror` trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday.

The military panel handed down the guilty verdict against Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul on Friday, but it was sealed until Monday, said the Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown shook hands with former detainees from the US`s Guantanamo Bay detention camp at a deradicalisation centre in Saudi Arabia Sunday.

Brown visited a half-way house on the outskirts of Riyadh for suspected Islamic militants designed to bridge the gap between high security prison and release.

Two detainees were transferred out of the US military detention facility in Guantanamo, Cuba, one to Tajikistan and the other to Kazakhstan, the Department of Defense announced Friday.

The detainees `were determined to be eligible for transfer following a comprehensive series of review processes,` the Pentagon said in a statement, without identifying the two.

Britain is to investigate alleged mistreatment of one of its nationals held at the Guantanamo Bay US detention camp, an official said on Friday.

Binyam Mohamed, who was detained in Pakistan in 2002, and is the last remaining Guantanamo detainee with a right to return to Britain, has been held in the US detention camp since 2004.

Lawyers for Canadian Omar Khadr, the last westerner held at Guantanamo, on Thursday brought a challenge in a federal court against his detention and the authority of the US military commission to try him, a lawyer for Khadr said.

Closing Guantanamo will be one of the thorniest tasks facing the next US president, and while both candidates have said it should be done, neither Barack Obama nor John Mccain has said how.

Opened in 2002 on a US naval base in southeastern Cuba, the `war on terror` detention camp has evolved since the early days of men in orange jumpsuits locked in cages that outraged the world.

A federal judge has allowed the US government to withhold requested testimony of torture and abuse 14 Guantanamo prisoners allegedly suffered in CIA custody, a human rights group that made the request said Wednesday.

Canadian Omar Khadr, the last westerner held at Guantanamo, will challenge his detention and upcoming trial before a federal judge Thursday, on grounds it violates international and US laws, his lawyers said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Oct 27, 2008 (AFP) - The trial of alleged Al-Qaeda propagandist Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul opened Monday at the Guantanamo Bay military jail in Cuba, officials said.

'The trial started this morning as scheduled at 9:30. Al-Bahlul was present,' said Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon.

WASHINGTON, Oct 25, 2008 (AFP) - Al-Qaeda propagandist Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul will go on trial in front of a US military tribunal at the Guantanamo prison Monday, with the Pentagon saying it expects he will appear despite his vows earlier this year to boycott the proceedings.

WASHINGTON, Oct 25, 2008 (AFP) - The military 'war crimes' commissions created to try US war-on-terror detainees held in Guantanamo bear only a partial resemblance to normal US courts and are heavily criticized for flouting fundamental principles of American law.

WASHINGTON, Oct 23, 2008 (AFP) - A federal judge held a hearing Thursday on the meaning of 'enemy combatant,' which the US government uses to justify holding suspects indefinitely without charge, as six Guantanamo prisoners were readied for trial.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 22, 2008 (AFP) - A UN rights official on Wednesday said he expected the next US administration to shut down its detention facility for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 22, 2008 (AFP) - A UN rights official on Wednesday said he expected the next US administration to shut down its detention facility for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A UN rights official on Wednesday said he expected the next US administration to shut down its detention facility for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

US President George W. Bush will likely keep the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists open before handing his successor the keys to the White House in January, the White House said Tuesday.

The Pentagon announced Tuesday that it had dropped conspiracy and terrorism charges against five Guantanamo detainees, including a Briton, but said it could reinstate them `at a later time.`

US President George W. Bush will likely not close the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists before handing his successor the keys to the White House in January, the White House said Tuesday.

A US federal appeals court has blocked the release of 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs from the Guantanamo Bay prison until more legal hearings are held in November.

The men have been held at the US `war on terror` detention camp for more than six years without charges.

American prosecutors will file new charges against a British resident held at Guantanamo Bay following the US presidential elections next month, the legal charity representing him said Tuesday.

The Bush administration believes the 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp should not be released into the United States because they pose a `risk distinct to this nation,` according to court documents obtained by AFP on Friday.

The US Justice Department has dismissed the bulk of charges against Binyam Mohammed, a British citizen indicted in late May for allegedly planning a radioactive `dirty bomb` attack on US soil, according to court documents obtained by AFP on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Oct 9, 2008 (AFP) - A US appeals court has temporarily blocked the release of 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp as President George W. Bush's administration scrambles to appeal it.

WASHINGTON, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Internal documents show the US military exported the 'brutal interrogation techniques' from Guantanamo prison and applied them to three terror suspects in US jails, civil rights groups said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - A US federal judge Tuesday ordered a group of 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs held at the Guantanamo Bay military jail in Cuba to be released in the United States, officials said.

WASHINGTON, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - A US federal judge Tuesday ordered a group of 17 Chinese Uighurs held at the Guantanamo Bay military jail in Cuba to be released onto American soil, officials said.