Defense Secretary Robert Gates, seen in this file photo taken on Feb. 27, 2007,has dismissed as "ridiculous" a 102-million-U.S.-dollar plan to build a court complex at Guantanamo, Cuba, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.  (AP, File Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has dismissed as "ridiculous" a 102-million-U.S.-dollar plan to build a court complex at Guantanamo, Cuba, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

    Instead, the new Pentagon chief instructed officials to draw up plans for a temporary facility for detainee trials that will be about a tenth of the cost, according to the report.

    The Pentagon had requested the money last year in an emergency funding measure and quietly put out a request for bids for the facility, which was to have included two courtrooms, conference and meeting facilities, and housing for 1,200 people.

    But in a hearing Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Gates said he nixed the idea shortly after assuming office, saying that he did not believe it was necessary and that it would not pass congressional muster.

    U.S. analysts said Gates' decision was partly aimed to fend off growing pressure on the Bush administration over the Guantnamo issue.

    Currently there are some 395 detainees in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo, which was opened in January 2002 to detain terror suspects and Taliban members mainly captured during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan in 2001.