RIGHTS campaigners urged US President Barack Obama to ask his Brazilian counterpart to resettle Guantanamo Bay detainees ahead of a meeting in Washington yesterday.

Mr Obama was due to hold talks with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff at the White House.

Anti-death penalty group Reprieve wrote to Mr Obama along with Brazilian non-profit Conectas and the Washington Office on Latin America calling on him to ask Brazil to accept prisoners from the US camp on occupied Cuban territory.

Reprieve said that 116 men continue to be held there without charge or trial, nearly half of whom have been cleared for release — a process requiring the unanimous agreement of six US federal government agencies.

They include Samir Naji Moqbel, a Yemeni man represented by lawyers at Reprieve, who was cleared for release in 2007.

The letter concludes “As you said in your State of the Union address, ‘It’s time to finish the job’ and close Guantanamo.”