'No tags' for Cuban camp Britons

Nine Britons are being held by the US military in Cuba

David Blunkett has rejected suggestions that British detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay will be kept under surveillance if returned to the UK.

The home secretary also ruled out the use of electronic tagging on any of the nine Britons being held at Camp Delta.

Either they would face a trial in the US or they would be returned home.

"I have never suggested tagging, I have never suggested satellite monitoring," he said during a visit to a new mosque in Watford.

"Where there isn't evidence that would stand up in a British court, as opposed to a military tribunal [in the US], then people can't be tried.

"If we could return them to Britain and where there isn't a trial people would be allowed to go about their business fairly."

Foundation stone

Attorney General Lord Goldsmith was still negotiating with the US government, said Mr Blunkett.

UK DETAINEES IN CAMP DELTA Shafiq Rasul, 24, of Tipton, West Midlands Asif Iqbal, 20, of Tipton Ruhal Ahmed, 23, of Tipton Martin Mubanga, 29, from north London Jamal Udeen, 35, from Manchester Richard Belmar, 23, from London Tarek Dergoul, 24, from east London Moazzam Begg, 36, from Birmingham Feroz Abbasi, 23, from south London At-a-glance: Britons held

It was down to him whether the arrangement on offer in the US was acceptable or whether the nine Britons should be brought home, the home secretary added.

Mr Blunkett - who laid a foundation stone at a new community centre alongside the North Watford Mosque - said it was a valuable resource for the whole community.

The ceremony was momentarily interrupted when one man shouted that the home secretary had "blood on his hands" because of the Iraq war.

Mr Blunkett's comments come after hopes were raised last week by a senior US official that seven of the nine Britons being held at Guantanamo would be repatriated if the UK "managed them".

That prompted an accusation that Mr Blunkett was the only obstacle preventing the return of the terror suspects.

Public opinion

The solicitor for one of the prisoners said hints by US officials that seven of the men could come home meant only the UK Government now caused any delay.

Louise Christian, representing Feroz Abbasi - who is considered a "high-risk" detainee - said Mr Blunkett feared public opinion if the men escaped prosecution.

The nine Britons are among 600 people detained in Cuba for two years.

The Guantanamo suspects have been divided into three groups - those posing a high risk who must be prosecuted and/ or detained, those posing a medium risk who can be repatriated, and those posing little or no threat.

George Bush last year named two of the Britons - Mr Abbasi, of Croydon, and Moazzem Begg - as candidates for trial by a military tribunal.