The information exchange crafted by the EU ministers is a compromise that obliges EU states to conduct "consultation and thorough information sharing" with the other members of the bloc before accepting any inmates. This would include restricting detainees' movements and keeping them under surveillance.

"It's very important," EU counterterrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove told news agency Reuters. "It is materialized by a system of information-sharing, politically confirmed at the highest level. That's important because it reinforces trust."

Kerchove went on to say that the agreement would set an example to other countries and hopefully pave the way for others to take in detainees.

The EU hopes that with this agreement in place, some of the 245 detainees at the prison could start to be moved out, enabling the US government to keep its deadline for closing Guantanmo Bay by January 2010.

One specific group of prisoners at issue consists of 18 Uighurs -- members of a Chinese minority that harbor separatist ambitions and whom China considers terrorists.

The Obama administration has declared the Uighurs posed no threat and could be released. However the US says the group cannot be returned to China for fear of persecution.

Opposition pipes up

Schaeuble still questions why former inmates can't be settled in the US

But several groups, notably from the right-wing of European politics, have continued to voice their opposition to accepting any former Guantanamo inmates.

"The Uighurs who we are supposed to take in, we should note for the record, were all in terror camps," said Lower Saxony state Interior Minister Uwe Schuenemann in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt.

Austria, Germany and Italy also voiced objections to any plan to resettle detainees in Europe, noting that the countries that are part of the Schengen zone have no passport controls, which would allow detainees to travel freely throughout the 25-nation area.

"If they do not pose any risk, we need to clarify why they cannot remain in the United States," said German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

"We cannot permit ourselves the liberty of leaving people suspected of terrorism at liberty," Italian Interior Minister Roberto Marconi said recently.

Significant agreement

European anti-terrorism co-ordinator Gilles de Kerchove says its all about trust

The cost of taking in detainees and monitoring their movements is also an issue as is the question of how to deal with the detainees' families.

EU asylum policies provide for family reunification and should the detainees request their families, the EU would be obliged to allow the relatives to relocate to the then former prisoners' new homes.

Negotiations are ongoing about how much the US will contribute to the transfer and integration of the detainees, according to officials.

av/Reuters/AFP

Editor: Nancy Isenson