Obama to order Guantanamo Bay closed on Day 1 as president

Barack Obama plans to order the Guantanamo Bay detention camp closed on his first full day in office on January 20, the US media reported yesterday, citing people briefed by Obama transition officials.

However, it could take several months to close down the site, as officials will have to transfer some of the remaining 248 prisoners to other countries, then decide how to try the remaining suspects.

Closing down Guantanamo "is more difficult than I think a lot of people realise", Obama said in an interview aired on Sunday.

But the incoming president was emphatic that the site would close. "I don't want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our constitution."