Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today urged the US to shut down its offshore prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because it is regarded as a torture centre.

"It is the opinion of many people that the camp should be closed because of the photographs and stories about it showed that it is a prison where torture is carried out," Abdullah was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

Abdullah, who chairs the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference, said it was "better for the United States" to close down the centre.

There has been worldwide international pressure on US authorities after a report by UN human rights experts called for the camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to be shut as soon as possible.

Annan was 'flat wrong'

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday that "sooner or later" Guantanamo will have to be closed, while British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday that the camp was "an anomaly" which needed resolving.

The White House has rejected calls for the camp's closure and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday that Annan was "flat wrong" to call for its closure.

Guantanamo has about 500 inmates most of whom have never been charged. The detainees were seized by the US in the global offensive launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.