Spain to take 4 more Guantanamo Prisoners

Spain has agreed to resettle four more Guantanamo Bay prison inmates, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday, in addition to a detainee from the Palestinian Territories transferred to Spain earlier this year.

Spain had said it was willing to take up to five prisoners from the Guantanamo U.S. military prison, set up after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and a focus of controversy because of torture allegations.

Holder, on a visit to Spain to discuss co-operation on fighting terrorism and international crime, said it had not yet been decided which detainees would go to Spain.

"We continue to work with our Spanish allies to identify people who would be appropriate to be resettled in Spain," he said at a news conference.

President Barack Obama pledged to close Guantanamo by last January. However, political and diplomatic difficulties made that deadline impossible to meet.

Holder said the U.S. planned to shut the prison as quickly as it could.