UN experts to go to Guantanamo only if allowed to see prisoners

After a year and half, the US government finally agreed to the visit but has restricted it to one day and has yet to authorise meetings with prisoners, Manfred Nowak told AFP on the sidelines of a seminar on torture.

US Defence Secretary Donald "Rumsfeld said private interviews with detainees is for him out of question," Nowak said.

"For us it's definitely a pre-condition and I sincerely hope that he will change his opinion and give permission because it's the only way to conduct an objective fact-finding," he said.