WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday ordered the Guantanamo Bay military prison closed within one year and established a cabinet-level task force to determine what to do with the remaining 245 detainees held at the facility.

Obama signed the executive order on Guantanamo following meetings Thursday morning with a group of former military officers who have been urging him to shut down the facility.

"Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now," Obama said, adding that the move will be carried out "consistent with national security."

The decision to shut the controversial military camp adds new pressure on Ottawa to repatriate 22-year-old Omar Khadr, the only remaining Canadian at Guantanamo.

Khadr has spent more than six years in detention at the prison awaiting trial on charges of terrorism and murdering a U.S. special forces soldier. All legal proceedings against him — and all other Guantanamo detainees — were halted for 120 days as the new U.S. administration reviews their cases.

"The message we are sending around the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism ... and we are going to do so in a manner consistent with our values and our ideals," Obama said.

"We are not going to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals."

Obama said a task force, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defence Secretary Robert Gates, the director of the CIA, the director of national intelligence and the new U.S. attorney general will come up with recommendations on how to deal with the Guantanamo detainees.

Obama's order on Guantanamo came in tandem with an order banning the Central Intelligence Agency from using coercive interrogation methods and requiring agents instead to follow military rules when questioning terror suspects.

Obama said the interrogation order will "ensure compliance with the treaty obligations of the United States, including the Geneva Convention."

It means "any interrogations taking place are going to have to abide by the army field manual," he said, adding that "the rule that says we don't torture, but that we can still obtain the intelligence we need."