The United States has said it would consider a request from London for the release of five British residents who are being held at Guantanamo Bay.
The British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, wrote to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seeking the return of the five, who are not British citizens but who lived in Britain before their detention in the camp in Cuba.
In the past, Britain has intervened in the cases of its citizens being detained at Guantanamo, but has refused to get involved in those of residents without British nationality.
The British Foreign Office noted that it had secured the release of all British nationals held at Guantanamo by January 2005.
The US State Department maintains that the five inmates requested for release by Britain from Guantanamo were believed to be 'dangerous'.
The British government request marks a shift from the policy of former Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, which secured the release of all nine British citizens held at the US prison camp in Cuba, but maintained it was not responsible for detainees of other nationalities who had simply lived in Britain.
Last year, Mr Blair's government successfully fought off a legal challenge by relatives of several British residents seeking to force London to press for their release from Guantanamo.
The foreign office said Mr Miliband and interior minister Jacqui Smith have decided to request the release of the five men from Guantanamo Bay.
They are Shaker Aamer, a Saudi national; Jamil el-Banna, who is Jordanian; Omar Deghayes, a Libyan; Binyam Mohamed from Ethiopia; and Abdennour Sameur, an Algerian.
Britain said it welcomed recent steps by Washington to reduce the numbers of those detained at Guantanamo Bay and to move towards the closure of the detention facility.
The US has faced strong international criticism over the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects at its naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
