LONDON, Feb 11: The United States has agreed to let British officials visit a Guantanamo detainee whose case has sparked protests and prepare for his return, Britain said on Wednesday.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Britain wants the return of Binyam Mohamed “as soon as possible” and noted that US President Barack Obama last month ordered a review of the cases of all those detained at Guantanamo.

“Following our representations, the US administration has now agreed that Mr Mohamed’s case should be treated as a priority in this process. We continue to work with the US to achieve a swift resolution.”

The US agreed on Tuesday that Foreign Office officials should visit Mohamed “as soon as possible”, Miliband said.

“The visit will help us make preparations for his return... should the review confirm a decision to release him.”

He said the team would include a police doctor, “who would take part in any return, so that he may assess Mohamed’s condition himself and report back.

“We are working as fast and hard as we can to secure Mr Mohamed’s release from Guantanamo and return to the UK. We want him to be released as soon as possible,” Miliband added.

Supporters of Mohamed, a former British resident, have stepped up their fight to secure his release in a case that threatens to embarrass the new US administration.

His US military lawyer Yvonne Bradley told a press conference in London that Ethiopian-born Mohamed went on hunger strike on Jan 5 in protest at his detention without charge and is being force-fed through a tube.

Bradley said that Mohamed, 29, was “nothing but skin and bones” when she visited him two weeks ago at the US military detention centre in Cuba, where he has been held since 2004.

“Mr Mohamed will leave Guantanamo Bay two ways if people don’t act,” she told a news conference. “Either insane, because that is slowly what’s happening to him, or in a coffin because his condition is declining.”

Last week, Miliband denied that the United States had threatened to review intelligence-sharing arrangements with Britain if evidence about alleged torture was released.

He was speaking after two British judges called for the British government to release “powerful evidence” provided by US intelligence services about Mohamed’s interrogation.

In one of his first acts in office, Obama agreed to close Guantanamo.—AFP