REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON - The United States was in talks with a wide range of countries to move "as aggressively as we can" in speeding up the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners, the State Department's envoy said, as President Barack Obama tries to make good on a long-standing promise to close the prison.

Seven months after he was appointed to the job, high-powered Washington attorney Clifford Sloan said in a rare interview that the administration was in its best position in years to negotiate the repatriation of detainees, including to chaotic destinations like Yemen, or arrange their resettlement in countries other than the their homeland.

Major obstacles remain, but Sloan said lawmakers had loosened restrictions enough to open the way for "significant progress" toward emptying the jail and achieving Obama's new goal of closing it by the end of the year. Most prisoners held at the US naval base in Cuba have languished for a decade or more without being charged or given a trial.

"We are talking to a wide range of countries and we are moving forward as aggressively as we can. I expect that you'll be seeing action on that front," Sloan told Reuters this week.

Obama promised at the start of his presidency in 2009 to shut the Guantanamo detention center, but failed to do so, largely due to opposition from the US Congress. In his annual State of the Union address last week, Obama told Americans "this needs to be the year" that Guantanamo is finally shut down and urged Congress to help him do it. But he offered no new prescription for removing the camp's remaining 155 prisoners.

Human rights groups welcomed the rhetoric, but some remain skeptical after years of delays.

"It's just a first step. Now we need to see action," said Raha Wala, senior attorney for Human Rights First. "We need to see a significant uptick in the pace of transfers if Guantanamo is going to be closed this year."

The challenge for Sloan - together with his fellow special envoy at the Pentagon, Paul Lewis - is to show that Obama finally means business. Among the remaining hurdles are a congressional ban on transferring detainees to U.S.-based prisons, and finding homes even for dozens of detainees cleared for release.

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