BERLIN, Jan. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to urge U.S. President George W. Bush during her visit to Washington to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists, a German weekly magazine said on Saturday.

    "An institution such as Guantanamo cannot and ought not to exist for long in this way. Means for a different treatment of the prisoners need to be found," said Merkel in an interview with Der Spiegel, which released the text two days before publication.

    Merkel, who is to pay her first visit to Washington from Jan. 12 to Jan. 14, after she became chancellor in November, said she would raise the issue when she met Bush.

    Spiegel also said Germany is pressing for the release from the notorious prison of a young Turkish Islamist who grew up in Bremen,Germany and went to Afghanistan to fight, but would not allow him to re-enter Germany until May 2007.

    Mindful that his four-year stay in jail would have made him even more radical, German Interior Ministry does not want Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish national, to return to Germany immediately for fear that he will make radical speeches in mosques, the magazine said.

    Spiegel said German diplomats in Turkey had contacted the Turkish government to discuss a joint approach towards the United States. Turkey told Germany that Kurnaz might be released by March.

    Germany alone cannot make it in requesting for his release because he does not possess German citizenship, the magazine said.

    Kurnaz has been put on a blacklist for much of the European Union, which remains valid till May 2007. He could only be released to Turkey initially, said Spiegel. Enditem