Senior US Democratic Party figures have called for a fundamental review of the value of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba.
The call came after the Bush administration decided that all detainees were entitled to the protection of the Geneva Conventions which require minimum standards of humane treatment and access to fair trials.
The apparent policy reversal follows last week's US Supreme Court decision that rejected the creation of special military tribunals to try the suspects.
Previously the US had insisted that Guantanamo inmates were unlawful combatants and not covered by the conventions.
The senior Democrat on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joe Biden, said a total review was now essential.
