GENEVA, Feb. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The United Nations on Thursday urged the United States to try or release all the detainees held at its detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and shut down the facility.

    In a 54-page report released on Thursday, the United Nations also called on the U.S. government "to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention center and to refrain from any practice amounting totorture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

    The report, summarizing an investigation by five UN experts, was based on interviews with former detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers as well as a questionnaires filled by the U.S. government.

    In response, the U.S. ambassador to UN office in Geneva Kevin Moley said the investigation had taken little account of the evidence provided by the United States, and moreover, the UN experts turned down an invitation to visit Guantanamo.

    However, the experts stressed that the reason why they refused to visit the detention center in Guantanamo was that the U.S. government would not allow them to interview the detainees. Enditem