ARAB-US RELATIONS - Dec. 27 - Al Qaida Captives To Be Held At US Base In Cuba.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirms plans to transfer Taliban and Al Qaida prisoners to a US navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, although maximum security detention facilities will not be ready for weeks. He does not discuss the issue of trying the prisoners, although US officials have signalled their intention to set up secret military tribunals. Prisoners in US custody will be eventually moved to the facilities, but it could take weeks to prepare the site to "handle the kinds of people that we would very likely place there", Rumsfeld says. Asked whether Cuban leader Fidel Castro could object to or hinder the plan, Rumsfeld says: "We don't anticipate any trouble with Mr Castro". Pentagon officials earlier said US forces took another 20 suspected Al Qaida and Taliban fighters into custody, bringing to 45 the number held in and around Afghanistan. Nearly all are believed to be non-Afghans. The prisoners will be interrogated by a "variety of US officials, including military", as they could have useful information in the search for Osama Bin Laden and in the campaign against terrorism, the Pentagon said. Washington refused to classify the fighters as "prisoners of war", which, under the Geneva Conventions, would guarantee them a court martial, as well as various rights in detention. But US officials said prisoners in US facilities were being extended the basic rights afforded PoWs.