The US government has welcomed Portugal's offer to take a number of Guantanamo bay inmates to help close the notorious detention center.

John Bellinger, legal adviser to the US secretary of state, has said Portugal's public offer was really quite a significant initiative, well received by the US as the first break in a European refusal to help shut down the camp.

Luis Amado, the Portuguese foreign minister, said on Thursday that Portugal stood ready to take some of the Guanta'namo detainees, and urged other European Union states to follow suit and "help the US government resolve the problem".

"As a matter of principle and coherence, we should send a clear signal of our willingness to help the US government closing Guantanamo, namely through the resettlement of the detainees."

Guantanamo bay, a US military prison in Cuba, has a reputation for using inhumane methods to extract information from inmates as young as 15 held indefinitely without being charged, allowed legal representation or standing trial.

Now in a bid to restore the tattered image of US policies and buff up its severely tarnished human rights record, President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo bay prison as soon as he takes office in January.

"I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that," the president-elect said in an interview with CBS news. "I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture, and I'm going to make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world," he added.

However, what the president will decide to do with the 255 inmates at the prison, and how much other countries are prepared to follow Portugal's lead and assist the endeavor has yet to be seen.

FBA/DT