A group of United Nations human rights experts today urged the United States to shut down its Guantanamo Bay detention centre "without further delay" because it violates key principles of international law including the prohibition on torture.

The call came in a report by five independent experts who act as monitors for the UN Human Rights Commission. But tonight the White House dismissed the document as a "rehash" of old allegations based on lies.

The report disputes the US definition of some 500 detainees at the naval base on Cuba as "enemy combatants" and argues that that President Bush's War on Terror has no basis in international law.

"The United States Government should close the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities without further delay," the experts say in their recommendations.

"Until the closure, and possible transfer of detainees to pre-trial detention facilities on United States terroritory, the Government should refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrating treatment or punishment, discrimination on the basis of religion, and violations of the rights to health and freedom of religion."

The Guantanamo Bay detention camps were set up by a military order in November 2001, two months after the September 11 attacks as a US-led coalition was attacking Taleban and al-Qaeda positions in Afghanistan.

The first prisoners, shackled and in their distinctive orange boiler suits, arrived in January 2002, since when only a handful have been charged while many others have remained in a legal limbo.

The experts said that the United States "should either expeditiously bring all Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial" - as required under international law - "or release them without further delay". It added: "Consideration should also be given to trying suspected terrorists before a competent international tribunal."

The report's findings and conclusions are based on interviews with former detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers and a detailed questionnaire filled out by the US Government. The experts turned down an invitation to visit the camp because they would not have been allowed private interviews or visits with detainees.

The United States firmly rejected the findings of the report. "These are dangerous terrorists that we’re talking about that are there," said the White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "We know that al-Qaeda terrorists are trained in trying to disseminate false allegations."

John Bellinger, a State Department legal adviser in Washington, said that the report "is fundamentally flawed in its procedures and is riddled with inaccuracies".

Referring to the allegation that the forced feeding of detainees on hunger strike amounted to torture, Mr Bellinger said that the Convention against Torture defined torture as an activity that is specifically intended to causes severe pain or suffering.

"I think that on its face, that no one would accept that our doctors, by giving someone food and nourishment, are intending to inflict severe physical pain or suffering on them."

Normally, the experts' report would be presented for discussion and possible action by the UN Commision on Human Rights, the world body's top human rights watchdog.

The 53-nation Commission holds a six-week annual meeting in Geneva in March and April at which delegates debate dozens of draft resolutions, but where contentious issues are routinely buried for reasons of political expediency. No date has been set for this year's session because UN member states are considering a proposal to replace the Commission with a more responsive year-round Human Rights Council.

Although the UN investigators did not visit Guantanamo, they said that photographic evidence - corroborated by testimony of former prisoners - showed that detainees were shackled, chained, hooded and forced to wear earphones and goggles. They said prisoners were beaten, stripped and force shaved if they resisted.

"Such treatment amounts to torture, as it inflicts severe pain or suffering on the victims for the purpose of intimidation and/or punishment," the report said.

Some of the interrogation techniques used at the detention facility itself, particularly the use of dogs, exposure to extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation for several consecutive days and prolonged isolation - also caused extreme suffering, the report said. The simultaneous use of such methods was "even more likely to amount to torture," it said.

The report also concluded that the particular status of Guantanamo Bay under the international lease agreement between the United States and Cuba did not limit Washington’s obligations under international human rights law toward those detained there - an argument that Washington firmly rejects.

The group of UN investigators included: Manfred Novak, the UN's special rapporteur on torture, Leila Zerrougui, an expert on arbitrary detention; Leandro Despouy, an expert on judicial independence; Asma Jahangir, an expert on freedom of religion; and Paul Hunt, an expert on physical and mental health.

Lawyers for former British detainees welcomed the UN report's recommendation that the Guantanamo Bay camps be closed down. None of the 490 current detainees are British but Amnesty International believes that nine of them have previously been resident in the UK and some of those have relatives here.

Clive Stafford-Smith a British human rights lawyer based in the US, said: "This is another authoritative body speaking and it’s absolutely right, they should shut the place down. The question now is whether the Bush Administration are going to listen or do what we have always seen and bluster against the UN."

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