Spain is ready to receive prisoners from the U.S.-controlled Guantanamo prison "as long as the international and internal laws allow," Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said on Monday.

Moratinos said that next week the Spanish government will discuss the issue with Dan Fried, the envoy sent by U.S. President Barack Obama.

"We have to wait for them to present the request, the number and the people they think could be received in Spain," he said when arriving at a ministers' meeting of the European Union (EU).

The U.S. Obama administration has pledged to close the Guantanamo prison at a U.S. military base in Cuba by January 2010 and has asked EU countries to take in some detainees who cannot be repatriated to their countries of origin.

The Guantanamo detention center still houses about 240 terrorist suspects from 30 nations, most of whom were detained after Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

Source: Xinhua