Obama defends Gitmo plan

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama vigorously defended his plans to close the Guantanamo prison camp yesterday and promised to work with Congress to develop a system for imprisoning detainees who can't be tried and can't be turned loose.

Obama conceded that some would end up in US prisons and insisted those facilities were tough enough to house even the most dangerous inmates.

The president spoke one day after the US Senate voted resoundingly to deny him money to close the prison in Cuba, in a rare, bipartisan setback for the popular president that complicates his efforts to persuade skeptical allies to accept some of Guantanamo's detainees.