Guantanamo undermines democracy, minister says

LONDON - The US camp at Guantanamo should be closed before it undermines the cause of democracy world wide, a British Foreign Office minister has said.

Kim Howells, the minister in charge of British policy in the Middle East, warned: "Our alliance with America is based on shared values. If those shared values are seen by the rest of the world to be terribly flawed, that undermines the cause of democracy. If Guantanamo is undermining those shared values, it should go."

His remarks coincided with one of the most direct appeals yet by a high-ranking figure in the US Government for British support over Guantanamo's continued existence. The Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, on a visit to London, said the camp was lawful and necessary to protect the United States.

Howells' comments go beyond anything said about Guantanamo by Prime Minister Tony Blair or Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who have both refused to give a direct answer to the question of whether the camp, in eastern Cuba, should be closed.

Howells was speaking at a meeting in the House of Commons organised by Human Rights Watch, to discuss whether Governments have been "bending the rules" that forbid torture and civil rights abuses.

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague told the meeting: "In standing up for the rule of law, we must not employ methods that undermine it."

Guantanamo has attracted protests from organisations across the world, including the UN and the Vatican. Former detainees have claimed they were tortured there, a charge denied by the Pentagon.

- INDEPENDENT