PARIS - FOREIGN Minister Bernard Kouchner wants France to consider taking in prisoners from the US Guantanamo detention camp that president-elect Barack Obama plans to shut down, a spokesman said on Thursday.

'Bernard Kouchner hopes that we, along with other European countries, can have a favorable review of the issue of accepting Guantanamo detainees,' said foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier.

'We consider that prisoners released from Guantanamo who fear for their safety must not be sent back to their countries of origin and must have the possibility ... of being taking in by a third country,' he said.

Mr Obama plans to sign a decree shutting down Guantanamo on his first full day of office next Tuesday, according to a New York Times report.

However it could take several months to close down the site and some of remaining 248 prisoners will have to be transferred to other countries.

Mr Kouchner came out in favour of a 'case-by-case' review of resettlement requests from Guantanmo detainees, with special attention paid to the security risks involved and the legal implications, said Mr Chevallier.

Amnesty International and the British NGO Reprieve, which fights for death-row or tortured prisoners, has asked France to take in Algerian national Nabil Hadjarab, held in Guantanamo since February 2002.

Hadjarab has family in France and spent a large part of his childhood in Lyon. He speaks French and considers himself more French than Algerian, his lawyer Cori Crider told Le Monde daily this week.

The detainee has admitted travelling to Afghanistan but denied taking part in Al-Qaeda training camps.

France last month said that European Union states should agree a common position on whether and how to accept former prisoners from Guantanamo Bay for resettlement after the US prison is closed. -- AFP