Washington - The United States on Thursday angrily rejected calls by United Nations human rights monitors to close the Guantanamo "war on terror" detention camp, calling their report "a discredit" to the world body.
But UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that "sooner or later" the controversial camp will have to be shut down - stepping up pressure on the US administration.
European lawmakers also urged Washington to close the camp in the wake of the UN rights monitors' report, and a senior British cabinet member also said the controversial detention centre should now be shuttered.
The report by five independent experts acting as monitors for the UN Human Rights Commission said the US government should close Guantanamo "without further delay".
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The 54-page document strongly condemned the treatment of the 500 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba.
It pointed to cases of "excessive violence" during transportation of detainees and force feeding of hunger strikers. These "must be assessed as amounting to torture", the report said.
The investigators said the US military acted as judge, prosecutor and defence in the special trials at the base.
They said the US authorities should "expeditiously bring all Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial" under international law, "or release them without further delay".
The White House quickly hit back at the investigators, criticising them for writing the report without having been to Guantanamo.
The experts cancelled a planned visit to the camp last year because the United States refused to give them free access to all prisoners.
They based their report on US government answers to a questionnaire, plus interviews with former inmates in Britain, France and Spain, and lawyers for some detainees.
"The United Nations should be making serious investigations across the world, and there are many instances in which they do when it comes to human rights. This was not one of them," said spokesman Scott McClellan.
"And I think it's a discredit to the UN when a team like this goes about rushing to report something when they haven't even looked into the facts, all they've done is look at the allegations," he told reporters.
"We know that these are dangerous terrorists being kept at Guantanamo Bay," he said. "I think that what we are seeing is a rehash of allegations that have been made by lawyers representing some of these detainees."
McClellan said al-Qaeda detainees were "trained to provide false information," including allegations of torture.
UN chief Annan added to the controversy when he said: "I think sooner or later there will be a need to close Guantanamo.
"It will be up to the (US) government to decide hopefully to do it as soon as possible."
Annan said: "There's a lot in the report and I cannot say I necessarily agree with everything (in it).
"But the basic point that one cannot detain individuals in perpetuity and that charges have to be brought against them and (they must) be given a chance to explain themselves and (be) prosecuted, charged or released."
In an interview with the BBC, British cabinet member, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain, said: "I would prefer it was closed, yes."
Asked if it was the British government's view that Guantanamo should be closed, the minister replied: "That's what I think", adding that he believed British Prime Minister Tony Blair also agreed with him.
Guantanamo was opened in early 2002 to detain prisoners picked up in Afghanistan and other countries in the "war on terror" launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Only 10 of the detainees have been formally charged.
A US State Department official, who requested anonymity, reiterated Washington's position that it considered the inmates were held "in full compliance with international law and obligations."
A number of detainees have tried to challenge their detention in US courts.
The US Supreme Court will on Friday consider the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni former driver for Osama bin Laden, who has questioned the legality of his detention and his trial by a special military tribunal at Guantanamo.
Some of the military tribunals hearing war crimes charges against inmates have been suspended because of such legal challenges. But US military authorities are still pressing some cases.
The next hearings are due to start at the end of the month. - Sapa-AFP
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