Obama reiterates 2010 deadline to close Guantanamo

President Barack Obama said yesterday some terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo would be sent to US prisons despite strong congressional opposition, as he defended his plan to close the internationally condemned detention centre.

In an extraordinary counterpoint to Obama's speech, former Vice President Dick Cheney said the president's reversals of Bush-era detainee policy amounted to "recklessness cloaked in righteousness and would make the American people less safe."

Mr Obama made his case a day after the US Senate, controlled by fellow Democrats, handed him a stinging setback by blocking funds to shutter the prison until he presents a detailed plan on what to do with the 240 terrorism suspects held there.

"This is the toughest issue we will face," Mr Obama declared in a 50-minute address at the National Archives where he said he had inherited a "mess" from the Bush administration that had hurt America's moral standing in the world.

Mr Obama used a forceful defence of his revamped terrorism policies to try to wrest back control of the debate that has gripped Washington and threatens to divert his attention from his declared top priority of rescuing the ailing US economy.

Mr Obama, who succeeded Republican George W. Bush on January 20, had vowed in his first days in office to close the detention centre, located at a US Naval base in Cuba, within a year as part of his effort to repair America's tarnished image abroad.

His public approval rating remains high, but implementing a revamped approach on detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects has proved more difficult than his administration expected.

Seeking to calm the public's fears that some Guantanamo detainees could eventually be released on US soil, Mr Obama insisted he would not authorise the freeing of anyone who would "endanger the American people".

But he said some terrorism suspects would be tried in US courts and would be held in super-maximum-security US prisons while others could be tried by military commissions or transferred to other countries.

His speech, however, contained few concrete details and may do little to satisfy fellow Democrats in Congress who have demanded a detailed plan on closing Guantanamo before they give him the necessary money to do it.

Mr Obama repeatedly stressed that his national security policies were based on the rule of law and represented a sharp break with those of Mr Bush, which he said had undercut rather than strengthened America's stature.