WASHINGTON, Feb 14: Senior Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are among the 650 prisoners being held without charges at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon said on Friday.

In its first account of whom it is holding and how it decides whom is locked up at the base, the Pentagon also said it would create a panel to review each prisoner's status annually. Officials said prisoners could appear in person before the panel, but would not be entitled to a lawyer.

Paul Butler, a Pentagon official involved in Guantanamo policy, said it had not been decided when the panel would convene or who would serve on it, but said any recommendation to free a prisoner would likely have to be approved personally by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Mr Rumsfeld and other officials mounted a big public relations offensive to clarify and defend US policy toward the Guantanamo detainees in the face of international criticism of their indefinite detention without charges.-Reuters