Obama to order Guantanamo closure

US president Barack Obama will sign an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre within a year and halt military trials of terror suspects held there, a senior aide said last night.

The executive order was one of three expected imminently on how to interrogate and prosecute al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters believed to threaten the United States.

A senior Obama aide said he would sign the order today, fulfilling his campaign promise to shut down the facility in Cuba that critics around the world say violates domestic and international detainee rights.

The aide spoke anonymously because the event had not yet been announced.