'I can confirm that a specific request by the United States of America regarding the acceptance of Guantanamo prisoners has been delivered, with names and information,' an interior ministry spokesman said.
'Its review (at the interior ministry) will likely start early next week, possibly from Monday.'
News weekly Der Spiegel reports in tomorrow's edition that Washington handed Berlin a list of 'nearly 10' prisoners.
The spokesman declined to confirm that figure.
Bild daily said the request concerned 10 Chinese ethnic Uighurs, who are viewed by Beijing as 'Chinese terrorists.'
Munich, capital of Germany's southern Bavaria state, is home to about 500 Uighurs, the world's largest known community in exile.
Most of the 17 Uighurs held at Guantanamo were cleared more than four years ago of being 'enemy combatants.'
The US Defence Department and the State Department have tried unsuccessfully for several years to arrange the transfer of the Uighurs to a third country, saying they face the risk of persecution if they return to China.
The Obama administration has said it 'cannot imagine' sending the inmates back to China.
In October, a federal judge ordered the men released into the US, but that ruling was overturned on appeal, leaving the men in legal limbo.
