MONTREAL, July 9: Two Canadian newspapers said on Friday they had evidence that seven western prisoners were freed by Saudi Arabia last year in exchange for five Saudi terror suspects from the US camp at Guantanamo Bay.

The papers quoted a document originating from the Belgian embassy in Riyadh, framing it as the first written confirmation that a swap deal, first reported by The New York Times, did take place.

"In a few days, the US ambassador will return from leave," the Belgian ambassador to Riyadh wrote back to Brussels on July, 12, 2003," the document quoted by the National Post said.

"I will ask him what the American reactions are to the Saudis non-fulfilment of their part of the agreement," he wrote, adding in parentheses ... "releasing the British prisoners in return for the release of five Saudi prisoners that were locked up at the Guantanamo base in Cuba."

The Montreal daily La Presse said it obtained the document, a cable sent to the Belgian foreign ministry, from British-Canadian William Sampson, freed along with five Britons and a Belgian on August 8, 2003.

The National Post newspaper meanwhile carried a story on the same document, obtained by the Belgian captive under freedom of information legislation. The New York Times reported Sunday, quoting unnamed officials, that the United States agreed to exchange five Saudi terror suspects for the seven westerners. -AFP