WASHINGTON, May 11: The US government has rejected calls to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, although it said it would like other countries to take back their prisoners and try them at home.

The strongest call for closing the US military prison camp came on Wednesday from Britain’s Attorney-General Lord Peter Goldsmith who said Guantanamo Bay had become a ‘symbol of injustice’ and its existence was unacceptable. “It is time in my view that it should close,” Lord Goldsmith said.

It is the strongest criticism yet from the British Government — Prime Minister Tony Blair has only gone as far as calling the detention centre an ‘anomaly’.

Commenting on the demand for dismantling the prison, US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld said: “I don’t think there’s anybody who wouldn’t very much like to see every prison closed and the people repatriated to their countries where they would be dealt with appropriately by those countries.

“The problem is that we’ve been working very hard … to try to persuade other countries to accept the detainees currently in Guantanamo and take them to their countries and treat them in a humane manner and see that they are tried as appropriate.”