WASHINGTON, June 25: The United States is helping build a prison in Afghanistan to take some prisoners now at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino noted that the United States has announced plans to release about 80 of some 375 detainees, and hopes to transfer several dozen Afghans back to Afghanistan in the near future.

Ms Perino, however, clarified that the prison in Afghanistan is not an alternative for the US prison facility at Guantanamo.

Senior administration officials said earlier this week that a consensus was building for a proposal to shut Guantanamo prison centre and transfer detainees to one or more Defence Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where they could face trial.

But Kansas officials and lawmakers are resisting the proposed move.

“I do not believe bringing terrorist detainees to Leavenworth County is a good idea. I’m not comfortable with this,” said Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, a Kansas Democrat and member of the House Armed Services Committee. “This isn’t a good thing for Leavenworth County.”

The move is also opposed by Vice-President Dick Cheney’s office and the Justice Department, which argue that transferring prisoners to US soil would give them undeserved rights and pose a threat to the United States.

But pressure on the administration to shut the facility has been mounting in recent months with a series of legal setbacks and some in Congress threatening to mandate it.

The White House is said to be looking to resolve the issue swiftly, Ms Perino told reporters that they have not yet set a deadline.