SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: The US Government released the most extensive list yet of the hundreds of detainees who have been held at the Guantanamo Bay prison nearly all labelled enemy combatants, but only a handful of whom have faced formal charges.

In all, 558 people were named in the list provided by the Pentagon on Wednesday in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The Associated Press. They were among the first swept up for suspected links to al-Qaida or the ousted Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The list is the first official roster of Guantanamo detainees who passed through the Combatant Status Review Tribunal process in 2004 and 2005 to determine whether they should be deemed "enemy combatants." Those named are from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and 39 other countries. Many have been held at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years.

Some names are familiar, such as David Hicks, a Muslim from Australia charged with fighting US and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He is one of 10 detainees selected to be tried by a military tribunal on charges of attempted murder, aiding the enemy and conspiracy to commit terrorism.

Hicks allegedly fought for the Taliban, and Australian news media have said British authorities contend he admitted undergoing training with British Muslim extremists, including Richard Reid, who was convicted of trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic airliner with a shoe bomb.

Lesser-known detainees on the list include Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi who reportedly was supposed to be the 20th hijacker in the September 11 attacks. Although his presence at Guantanamo had been reported, the military had previously declined to confirm it.

The list also includes top former Taliban officials, such as the ousted regime's former Defence Ministry chief of staff Mullah Mohammed Fazil; Taliban intelligence officials Abdul Haq Wasiq and Gholam Ruhani, who are believed to still be in custody; and the Taliban's former Ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, who was released in late 2005.

In all, the detainees on the list came from 41 countries. The largest number 132 came from Saudi Arabia. Afghanistan followed with 125, including some top former Taliban officials. Yemen was next with 107.

The list had been previously accessible by the International Committee for the Red Cross, but the Defence Department had determined it was now "prudent" to release the list to the public, Pentagon spokesman Lieutant Colonel Todd Vician said.

Partial, unofficial lists of Guantanamo Bay detainees have been compiled in the past by news organizations, lawyers and human rights groups. The US Government had previously declined to release any list of names except the 10 who have been formally charged.

Even with the latest release, the Pentagon has not provided a full list of all the more than 750 prisoners that the military says have passed through Guantanamo. Vician said he had no information on the roughly 200 people whose names did not appear on Wednesday's list.

The release of the list, ordered by a federal judge, came amid wide criticism of the almost total secrecy surrounding the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, where the United States now holds about 490 detainees.

Source: China Daily