BEIJING, June 9 -- US President George W Bush said on Wednesday he was ready to examine alternatives to the US camp for "war on terror" detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, following mounting criticism from former President Jimmy Carter.

    Asked in a US television interview if he would close the camp, Bush said "we're exploring all alternatives as to how best to do the main objective, which is to protect America".

A file photo, dated in 2002, shows detainees sitting in a holding area watched by military police at Camp X-Ray inside Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during their processing into the temporary detention facility. (Reuters)

    "What we don't want to do is let somebody out that comes back and harms us."     

    Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, said he did not know of anyone in the administration who was considering closing Guantanamo.

    Former United States president Jimmy Carter has called on the Bush administration to close down Guantanamo Bay.

    He told a human rights conference Tuesday that closing the Guantanamo prison would demonstrate the U.S. commitment to human rights at a time when the U.S. reputation has suffered globally because of reports of prisoner abuses at Guantanamo as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Next week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a private hearing to determine whether the Bush administration is granting the prisoners at Guantanamo enough legal rights.

    Guantanamo holds about 540 detainees. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with any crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantanamo Bay in hope of extracting useful intelligence about the al-Qaida terrorist network.

(Agencies)