The US Defence Secretary has tried repeatedly to close America's controversial prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but has been thwarted by the White House, according to reports today.

The New York Times reported that Robert Gates, who succeeded Donald Rumsfeld as Defence Secretary last December, has complained several times to the Bush Administration since January that the camp has attracted so much criticism abroad that any legal proceedings conducted there have lost their legitimacy.

But his requests for its closure, and the transfer of trials of terror suspects to mainland America, have been refused in turn by the US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, Vice President Dick Cheney and President Bush himself, the newspaper said.

Mr Gates, a former head of the CIA, has tried to strike a more moderate, less combative tone since succeeding Mr Rumsfeld last year and among his attempted reforms, the Times reported today, has been an effort to act on Mr Bush's stated willingness to close the camp in Cuba.

The President has said several times that he would like to shut down the detention facility, where around 400 detainees, swept up in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are held. But those intentions appear to have faded as the Pentagon has continued to prepare for a series of military trials at the prison later this year.

Suspects from the War on Terror continue to be interrogated there. Earlier this month, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, described by the US as one of the most senior al-Qaeda members in its custody, admitted to planning and orchestrating dozens of acts of terrorism, including the September 11 attacks and the beheading of an American journalist, Daniel Pearl.

But his confessions were questioned by human rights observers who asked whether he had been interrogated humanely and why his hearings were held in secret. Mr Gates is reported to be concerned that similar criticisms could be levelled at the military tribunals planned for 14 detainees at the camp scheduled for later this year.

“I think that Guantanamo has become symbolic, whether we like it or not, for many around the world,” Mr Gates said during a recent Pentagon briefing.

“The problem is that we have a certain number of the detainees there who often by their own confessions are people who if released would come back to attack the United States. There are others that we would like to turn back to their home countries, but their home countries don’t want them.”

Today's newspaper report increases the pressure on Mr Gonzales, the architect of some of the most contested legal arguments for the War on Terror, who is identified as arguing to keep Guantanamo Bay open. The Times said it had been able to publish the story partly because White House officials were not sure that the Attorney General would be in his job for much longer.

Mr Gonzales is currently at the centre of a vicious political stand-off turning on the dismissal of eight respected federal prosecutors during the winter. He is accused by Democrats in Congress of firing them on the political orders of the White House.

Yesterday Congress authorised subpoenas for a clutch of senior aides, including Karl Rove, Mr Bush's trusted political strategist, and the former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, demanding that they come before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain the firings. So far the White House has only offered to make the aides available for secret interviews, without transcripts and not under oath.

The furore has led to demands from both sides of the house for Mr Gonzales to step down, a move that, with the continued support of Mr Bush, he refuses to contemplate.

In another confrontation that reflects the divided state of Washington since the Democratic Party started to flex its majority control of Congress, the House of Representatives was expected to vote this afternoon on legislation that would demand the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq by September 2008.

Democratic congressmen said this morning that they are confident of enough votes to pass the bill, which would approve $100 billion of emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while insisting on the final withdrawal date. Mr Bush has already threatened to veto the bill if it is passed by the Senate, but he needs congressional support for the funding.

A passionate debate presaged the vote this morning. David Obey, a Democratic congressmen from Wisconsin, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, was met by loud applause as addressed the chamber. “I don’t want your applause, I want your goddamn votes,” he said.

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