'Terror suspect talks continue'

Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg are facing the tribunals

Downing Street has denied reports that ministers have given up hope of getting two British terror suspects held in Guantanamo Bay tried in the UK.

MPs want Tony Blair to press for Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg to be repatriated when he visits Washington this week.

More than 200 MPs have signed a parliamentary motion calling for the two British citizens to be returned, amid fears they will not get a fair trial.

We say we have a special relationship with America. Now is the time to use it. Azmat Begg Father of UK terror suspect 'Bring my son home'

But Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "We are continuing to discuss with the US a number of options, one of those includes repatriation. No decision has yet been taken. It continues to be a live issue."

The spokesman said he did not know whether the matter would be resolved before Mr Blair's talks with US President George Bush begin on Thursday.

Decision makers

A report in Tuesday's Guardian newspaper said ministers were resigned to the fact that legal barriers would prevent the two men from being tried in Britain.

The US authorities were worried that Home Secretary David Blunkett could not guarantee the suspects would be tried, said the newspaper.

There are at least 680 people being held at Guantanamo Bay

In Britain, the Crown Prosecution Service, not the government, makes such decisions.

But Number 10 said it did not recognise the newspaper's story.

The mother of Mr Abbasi, on Tuesday said Tony Blair would never again be able to say he upheld human rights if he did not stop the US "torturing and killing my son".

In a statement released by her solicitor, Zumrati Juma said her son "may have been foolish but he does not deserve to die".

"He disappeared from home when he was only 19 at a time when the Taliban were still recognised as a lawful government," she said.

"He had become intensely religious and had what were no doubt romantic ideas.

"He said to me that you could only be a true Muslim if you lived in Afghanistan but I never thought he would go there."

'High level contacts'

Ms Juma accused the Foreign Office of "doing nothing" for her son - something the department later denied.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are pressing the US administration on the future of the British detainees, and encouraging them to come to a decision on how to deal with those detainees.

"We have had regular high-level contacts with the US administration."

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy is among those urging Mr Blair to use his influence in Washington over the issue.

Mr Kennedy told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday: "If it does matter for something, I think a special relationship or that degree of influence has to be a two-way street.

"What we seem to be encountering at this stage is very much one-way traffic."

'Listen'

Under the proposed trial arrangements it is understood Mr Begg and Mr Abbasi will be denied the right to choose their legal representation.

The MPs' motion says the prisoners face a choice between pleading guilty and being given 20 years, or if they fail to do that and are convicted they face the death penalty.

The MPs also raise concern about the mental state of the two men after 18 months of incarceration in cages two metres wide and only 30 minutes of exercise twice a week.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is understood to have raised the issue with his US counterpart Colin Powell twice in the past week.

There are at least 680 suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban members at the US naval base in Cuba.

President Bush sparked human rights protests when he decided last week that six of them, including Mr Begg, 35, of Birmingham, and Mr Abbasi, 23, of London, and Australian David Hicks, should face trial in a military tribunal.