Cuba visit to see 'British' prisoners

A group of British officials, including intelligence officers, was this morning flying out to Cuba to question the al Qaeda prisoners - thought to number half a dozen - who claim UK citizenship.

The team will report back to ministers in London on both the issue of their identity and their welfare.

The trip is not a normal consular visit - other countries where captives claim citizenship are not being given access to the prisoners, who are being held in Guantanamo Bay.

Downing Street and the Foreign Office have maintained silence on the visit, which coincided today with the arrival of a team of Red Cross officials who were due to talk to the prisoners amid concern about their treatment. Labour MPs have raised questions over the tight security surrounding the prisoners, and the fact that they were sent over to Cuba wearing hoods.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has defended their treatment, arguing that it was "reasonably consistent" with the Geneva Convention.

Tony Blair has maintained there was no need for him to raise the issue with President Bush when the pair discussed the prisoners in a phone call yesterday.

? US forces have flown another 30 prisoners out of their base at Kandahar airport in Afghanistan, this time to Pakistan. A Marine spokesman declined to say if the men were Pakistanis.