An attempt to force the Government to demand that the US return Guantanamo detainee Omar Deghayes has failed.

Three appeal judges have rejected the argument that the former Saltdean student, who has indefinite leave to stay in Britain, should be treated as a UK citizen.

Mr Deghayes, who first fled to Brighton with his family when his father was murdered in Libya, has been held in Guantanamo Bay for more than four years without charge.

Judges admitted he and his fellow detainees "have been subjected at least to inhuman and degrading treatment" at the US detention centre in Cuba but said .

Rabinder Singh, acting for the families of the men, told a hearing in July that the their detention was unlawful.

He said there was evidence that Mr Deghayes along with two other British residents had suffered torture at the hands of US interrogators and that each was still exposed to that risk.

Lord Justice Laws, announcing that the Court of Appeal had dismissed the three appeals, said the refusal to request their return did not contravene human rights or race relations laws.

The case went to the appeal court after two judges in the High Court in London refused to quash the decision by the Foreign Office not to seek their release.

It had been asked to rule that the men, although foreign nationals, were long-term UK residents who were entitled to help similar to that received by British citizens who were freed from Guantanamo in March 2004 and January 2005 after the Foreign Office made formal requests to the US.

The judges said they could not interfere with the decision by the Foreign Office, which had said it was not obliged to help the men because they were not British nationals.

Lord Justice Laws said that a generation ago the court would have said that it had no jurisdiction over foreign relations policies of the Government.

He said the reason the courts were now considering such cases was the "legal and ethical muscle of human rights and refugee status".

He said: "The prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, some of them at least, have suffered grave deprivations.

"In this appeal we should proceed on the premise that the detainee claimants have been subjected at least to inhuman and degrading treatment."

But he said that there had been no discrimination against the detainees either under human rights or race relations laws and the no claim could be made that the Foreign Secretary failed to treat like cases alike.

The Government has maintained that it has not had detailed discussions with the US about the release of Mr Deghayes or eight other former UK residents held in Guantanamo.

But recent statements from senior Foreign Office and Home Office officials reveal that American authorities has raised the possibility of Britain "taking back" the remaining deatinees.

The US wanted the Government to monitor them and prevent them from leaving the UK but the British reponse was reportedly "cool", arguing the detainees did not pose "sufficient threat to justify the devotion of the high level of resources" the US would require.

One British official described the talks as "going around and around like a washing machine cycle".