Tory call over Guantanamo detainees

The Government has reportedly struck a deal with the US for the men - Jamil el-Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdenour Samuer - to return to the UK.

Another detainee with links to this country, Shaker Abdur-Raheem Aamer, will apparently go back to his native Saudi Arabia. A fifth man - Ethiopian Binyam Mohammed al Habashi - is to remain at the base on Cuba, according to the BBC.

The three men may be back in the UK by the end of the year, the corporation said.

Intense negotiations have been taking place since the Government asked over the summer for all the men to be freed - having previously refused to intervene because they were not UK citizens.

However, the Foreign Office has declined to confirm that an agreement has been reached, or say how the detainees will be handled if they do return to Britain. The Pentagon would not comment on the negotiations.

Shadow security minister Dame Pauline Neville Jones warned that reassurances would be needed, because the men were still regarded as suspects by the US authorities.

"The Government needs to tell us what they will do next," she said. "In particular they need to tell us if these people, whom the Pentagon describe as 'dangerous', are going to be released when they get back to Britain."

Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who represents the detainees, insisted there was "no doubt" that a deal had now been struck, but a date for their return had yet to be set. Asked whether he expected them to be quizzed by police on arrival in the UK, as British nationals returning from Guantanamo were, Mr Stafford Smith replied: "I am sure they will be briefly questioned, but equally sure they will be released. There is no reason to detain them."

A Home Office spokeswoman insisted the Government was "fully committed" to protecting British national security, adding: "It would be inappropriate to comment on any individual security measures that may be necessary."