WASHINGTON - THE Obama administration is abandoning one of President George W. Bush's key phrases in the war on terrorism: enemy combatant In court filings on Friday, the Justice Department said it will no longer use the term to justify holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Mr Obama still asserts the military's authority to hold detainees at the US naval base in Cuba.

But his Justice Department says that authority comes from Congress and the international laws of war, not from the president's own wartime power as Bush had argued.

The Obama administration's position came in response to a deadline by US District Judge John Bates, who is overseeing lawsuits of detainees challenging their detention.

JudgeBates asked the administration to give its definition of whom the United States may hold as an 'enemy combatant.'

The new administration is seeking to craft new rules for when and how a terrorism suspect can be seized, and what interrogation methods may be used in trying to extract information from them.

But while it works on those rules, the Obama administration appears to be sticking with Bush administration legal definitions in pending litigation.

The Justice Department says prisoners can only be detained if their support for al-Qaida, the Taliban or 'associated forces' was 'substantial.' But it does not define the terms.

Human rights advocates cheered Obama's order the first week of his presidency to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay and his declaration that the United States would never again torture prisoners.

But, he has since been criticized for maintaining some Bush policies. -- AP