George Bush has made his first public declaration that he wants to close the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Mr Bush told EU leaders in Vienna yesterday that he would like to send many detainees home and put others on trial in the US.

Campaigners for the release of Brighton Guantanamo prisoner Omar Deghayes said he would face certain torture and death if sent back to his native Libya because his father was killed by the Qadafi regime in 1982.

Jackie Chase, from the Save Omar campaign, said: "It doesn't surprise me at all that George Bush wants this torture camp closed.

"It is a massive political and moral embarrassment for his Government and he is under huge pressure domestically and internationally.

"I am worried that he will simply send people back to their native lands irrespective of the fact that, like Omar, many of the detainees are political dissidents who would be killed and tortured."

Mr Deghayes, 36, lived in Brighton but his application for British citizenship was still pending when he was arrested four years ago.

Mr Bush told EU leaders: "I'd like to end Guantanamo. I'd like it to be over with." He said 200 detainees had been sent home and most remaining were from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Afghanistan.

But he added some prisoners would need to be tried in the courts. "They will murder somebody if they are let out on the street," he said.

Some 460 terror suspects are currently being held at the camp.