Algerian officials visited Guantanamo

A high-level Algerian delegation has visited the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and confirmed the identities of 17 Algerians imprisoned there, the justice minister said Sunday.

It was the first time a clear figure for the number of Algerians held at Guantanamo has been made public.

Justice Minister Tayeb Belaiz did not say when the delegation visited Guantanamo but said the purpose of the trip was to confirm the nationality of prisoners thought to be Algerians.

"They are, indeed, Algerians. There are 17 of them," he told reporters on the sidelines of the opening of the spring parliamentary session.

Days earlier, Assistant Secretary of State David Welch said during a visit to Algeria that Washington wants an accord soon with Algeria on repatriating its citizens released from Guantanamo.

Belaiz denied reports saying an accord would be concluded within days. He said all 17 were welcome to return to Algeria — but warned that those wanted by Algerian authorities will face justice at home.

Some prisoners could be reluctant to return home. On Dec. 31, a U.S. federal appeals court blocked the transfer of a Guantanamo detainee to Algeria after the prisoner, Ahmed Belbacha, contended his life would be in danger — both from the government and from al-Qaida.

Hundreds of Algerians are known to have joined the al-Qaida network in the 1990s as an Islamic insurgency raged at home.

A second problem could be posed by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's 2006 amnesty plan freeing thousands of jailed Islamic insurgents in a bid to reconcile the country after years of violence.

President Bush has said he would like to close Guantanamo, where some 275 prisoners remain.

However, Welch said Washington must be assured that sending a prisoner home does not open a door to danger; some prisoners returned to their homelands were later set free.

An insurgency in Algeria triggered by the army's move to cancel national elections to thwart a likely Muslim fundamentalist victory has left an estimated 200,000 people dead.

It continues with sporadic violence that increasingly mimics al-Qaida and is claimed by an Algeria-based al-Qaida affiliate.