CHICAGO, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- A delegation from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons is scheduled to tour and inspect the Thomson Correctional Center Monday as part of a White House proposal to buy the facility and use it to house some terror suspects now detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it is reported here Monday.

    Speaking at a news conferences in Moline, about 300 kilometers west of Chicago on Sunday, Illinois' Governor Pat Quinn called the Obama Administration's interest in the prison near the Mississippi River a "great, great opportunity" for the state."

    Housing the detainees here would be "good for our state, good for our economy and good for our public safety," the governor said.

    U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, who also spoke, estimated that using Thomson to hold terror suspects would generate more than 2,000 local jobs directly related to the facility and an additional 1,000 in the surrounding community.

    Republicans on Saturday warned of the security risks posed by housing terror suspects in Illinois.

    "As home to America's tallest building, we should not invite al-Qaida to make Illinois its number one target," said Senate candidate and current U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk in a letter.

    The Obama administration Friday revealed that the largely vacant prison is a leading candidate to house a "limited number" of terrorism suspects.

    The administration has faced a knot of problems as it works to close the detention center on the naval base in Cuba. Thomson, a maximum-security prison roughly 240 kilometers west of Chicago, could be turned into a super-maximum facility with a unit for some of the Guantanamo detainees.

    It remains unclear how the detainees would be brought to Illinois and whether Thomson would be the sole domestic prison for that purpose. Several other sites have been under review by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Defense, and local officials around the country have volunteered their communities as host towns.