Several White House officials have reportedly claimed that Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo prison.

George Bush's top national security and legal advisers were reportedly to discuss the move at the White House on Friday, AFP said.

It was claimed the meeting - which would include Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and the vice-president, Dick Cheney - was to consider a new proposal to close the notorious center and transfer detainees to one or more department facilities on US soil.

However, after the claims emerged, the White House rushed to deny there would be an immediate decision on the issue.

Officials did, however, concede that George Bush favored closing the controversial prison.

"No decisions on the future of Guantanamo Bay are imminent, and there will not be a White House meeting tomorrow," the White House spokesman Scott Stanzel noted.

"The president has long expressed a desire to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and to do so in a responsible way," he added.

"A number of steps need to take place before that can happen, such as setting up military commissions and the repatriation to their home countries of detainees who have been cleared for release. These and other steps have not been completed."

Bush has said he wants to close the facility as soon as possible and is keenly aware of its shortcomings.

Earlier Rice has been quoted as saying that she would like to see Guantanamo closed if a safe alternative could be found.

Previous plans to close the Guantanamo prison have run into fierce resistance from Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, the attorney general, and the former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Dick Cheney's office and the justice department have remained opposed, arguing that moving "unlawful" enemy combatant suspects to the US would give them undeserved legal rights.

MRJ/HAR