No quick fix on Guantanamo - US

Nine Britons are being held by the US military in Cuba

US secretary of state Colin Powell appears to have dashed hopes of an early deal over the nine Britons held by the US in Guantanamo Bay.

Seven were still being questioned to ascertain whether "they have done something wrong", he told the Guardian.

And there were still "legal issues" to be settled over two, Feroz Abbasi and Moazzem Begg, who had been listed as due to face a military commission.

Campaigners want an early deal on the men, in return for UK support on Iraq.

Hopes were raised during US President George Bush's state visit to the UK last week that a deal on the Britons, held on suspicion of being Taleban or al-Qaeda suspects, was imminent.

But on Friday Mr Powell said: "The specific cases of two detainees that are before our military tribunal, the British detainees, is a difficult one.

[Seven of the nine] have not yet gone through the entire intelligence and interrogation process... to determine whether or not they have done something wrong Colin Powell Blair: Guantanamo deal soon

"There are some very complex legal issues that our lawyers are still working out. But the president is anxious to do what he can to resolve that one.

"And we're trying to be very sensitive to the needs of Tony Blair's government."

On the seven other Britons, not so far listed for trial at all, he said: "The other seven are in a different track and they have not yet gone through the entire intelligence and interrogation process..."

He said that would "determine whether or not they have done something wrong and therefore should be subject to some judicial process, or whether they should be released, and what danger they present".

'Risible'

Moazzem Begg's father Azmat said the US authorities had previously made clear they would listen to Mr Blair's demands on the matter, and called on the prime minister to do more to get the detainees released.

"It's in the hands of Tony Blair. If he wants, he can call them tomorrow," he told BBC News Online.

He repeated that his son should never have been sent to Guantanamo in the first place.

"They said they were taken on the battlefield. My son was not in the battlefield," he said.

Stephen Jakobi, the director of the pressure group Fair Trials Abroad, said Mr Powell's comments made "no sense".

He pointed out that most of the nine had been in Guantanamo for two years already.

"The idea that intelligence can't process people over two years is risible. What Powell has said makes no sense," he said.

I regard this as a monstrous failure of justice Lord Justice Steyn

Mr Blair said after Mr Bush's visit that he expected a resolution "sometime soon" on the issue of the British detainees.

And Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, who met Mr Bush for 30 minutes, said Mr Bush had told him he hoped the Guantanamo issue could be resolved "in the next week or two".

Australia has already said it has reached a deal over two of its Guantanamo detainees.

It said the US had agreed that the men will not face the death penalty, but they could face a military tribunal.

This will be open to the media and they will have their own lawyers. They could be allowed to serve their sentences back in their home country.

Meanwhile, one of Britain's top judges, Lord Justice Steyn, has condemned the detentions at Guantanamo Bay as "a monstrous failure of justice".

The judge said the detainees were being deliberately held beyond the rule of law and the protection of any courts.