President-elect Barack Obama is to issue an order to close the Guantánamo detention centre in his first week in office, according to his advisers.

Obama, who takes over the presidency next Tuesday, will make closure one of his first decisions, two of his advisers told the AP news agency.

The pledge comes only the day after Obama appeared to row back from campaign promises by saying closure was more complicated than he had realised and it would be a challenge to do so in his first 100 days in office.

Guantánamo has become a touchstone for the new administration. Democrats and liberal lawyers, as well as European governments, have repeatedly called for its closure, seeing it as an affront to human rights. Some of the detainees have been tortured.

Complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/12/guantanamo-obama-white-house