BOWING to pressure from two key allies in the US-declared war on terrorism, the Pentagon said it would not seek the death penalty in any military trials held for two British subjects or an Australian national held at Guantanamo Bay.

THE US has agreed to suspend the threat of secret military hearings against two British terror suspects, pending talks between legal authorities on both sides of the Atlantic, a Downing Street spokesman said yesterday.

The US government has set the rules for conducting military tribunals for prisoners from the Afghan war, including five Britons being held at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay.

British Taliban suspect Feroz Abbasi has lost a High Court battle over the conditions of his detention by the US at Camp X-Ray.

The British government was today facing legal action for allegedly failing to press the US to respect the human rights of the Camp X-Ray prisoners.

Two more British prisoners have been moved to the US Camp X-ray detention centre in Cuba.

The British government tonight attempted to defuse the row over the al-Qaida suspects held by the US at Camp X-Ray, insisting their conditions were in line with ‘‘international humanitarian norms’’.