WASHINGTON: A US federal judge on Thursday rejected a new set of rules proposed by the Obama administration that would have placed added restrictions on lawyers' access to Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court in Washington said a four-year-old court order on lawyer access at the US naval base in Cuba was working well and would continue to govern the exchanges.

In a blistering opinion, Lamberth accused President Barack Obama's administration of confusing “the roles of the jailer and the judiciary.” He lashed out at the federal government's “preposterous position” that detainees seeking counsel represent themselves in legal proceedings or write to the court, even though most Guantanamo detainees do not know English and, in some cases, are illiterate in their own languages.—AFP