Open Guantanamo Bay for inspection

The UN intends to send inspectors to the base on December 6 to investigate allegations of torture at the military-run prison and wants them to have free access to detainees, something Washington has so far refused to grant.

"The absence of a conclusive answer by midnight (2300 GMT) on Thursday will be taken as a refusal," Nowak told AFP.

"The situation is very clear: if the United States does not accept our conditions, we will not go," Nowak added.

Nowak and his team are due to draw up a report by the end of December on the conditions under which detainees are being held at the camp and will present their findings to the UN Commissioner for Human Rights in March.

"The report will be written whatever happens," Nowak insisted. "We are in a position to assess the situation (in Guantanamo Bay) on the basis of eye witness accounts but obviously it would be preferable for all concerned if we could carry out a proper first-hand inspection."

However, he warned: "For us to go to Guantanamo Bay without our conditions having been met would set a negative precedent for all other countries.