Barack Obama is to issue an executive order declaring the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp on his first day in office next week, aides to the President-elect said today.

The directive will be an immediate and high-profile declaration by Mr Obama that he intends to make a clean break from President Bush on the most controversial aspects of the way his predecessor has prosecuted the War on Terror.

Mr Obama is also expected to issue another order explicitly banning the use of torture on terror suspects and other controversial security policies, as he seeks to persuade the rest of the world that, under him, America is entering a new era where the Geneva Conventions are respected.

The order to close Guantánamo Bay is more symbolic than an immediate reality. Mr Obama conceded on Sunday that closing the prison camp would take time and was a complex issue with no easy solutions. Yet he is also expected to suspend all further military commissions and hearings at the camp until it is disbanded.

He vowed unambiguously during the weekend interview that, despite the difficulty in doing so, the camp would close. His move next Wednesday, the day after his Inauguration, reflects not only his determination to shut it down, but the fact that his White House transition team has already devoted much time to working on the problem of where to relocate the 248 detainees still held there.

The order will be combined with a concerted diplomatic push to persuade foreign governments, including Britain, to take many of the 170 to 200 inmates who are not considered a national security threat.

Mr Bush complained in his final news conference yesterday that foreign governments who had demanded the closure of Guantanamo Bay had refused to help when his Administration had asked for assistance in relocating the bulk of the detainees held there, most of whom have never been charged.

Britain has refused all entreaties, but The Times revealed last month that the Government is now considering helping Mr Obama by reviewing the issue of Guantánamo detainees on a “case by case basis”. Portugal and Germany have publicly declared their willingness to help the new administration in Washington to close the camp, and have urged other EU members to do the same.

One of the most difficult problems for Mr Obama is what to do with the 50 to 80 inmates deemed dangerous terror suspects. They include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks, and other high-profile members of the al-Qaeda network.

Mr Obama said on Sunday that many of these inmates were probably dangerous, but potential trials had been complicated because much of the evidence against them is tainted because it was garnered by harsh interrogation techniques.

One idea that has been rejected by Mr Obama is to detain these prisoners indefinitely on US soil. He appears determined that they should face trial, on the mainland, and a team of legal advisers is trying to formulate a system whereny proceedings can take place with as much due process as possible.

The solution is again far from straightforward. The CIA is determined that any agents who have been involved in the interrogation of these suspects are shielded from public view, while the public airing of evidence risks breaching sensitive national security issues.

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