Brussels, 28/01/2010 (Agence Europe) - The United States is not losing hope and is counting on the support of Europe for the closure of the Guantanamo detention centre. “Our message to our European friends is: let's finish what we started together,” said US President Barack Obama's special envoy Daniel Fried on the closure of this site on Wednesday 27 January. “I'm confident it will be closed under Present Obama's first term,” by January 2013, he told journalists in Brussels. Guantanamo had to be closed “as quickly as we can”, he went on, stating, however, that “everything about Guantanamo is hard”. He thanked the governments of the EU member states for their “extremely helpful” assistance. “I have not been disappointed by the support we have had thus far, because it's not easy,” he added. He went on, both the US and the EU had done a lot together to close Guantanamo, but a lot remained to be done. He said that there had been 240 detainees in the centre when Obama became president in January 2009. Today there are 192 inmates, most Yemenis. In all 48 detainees have left Guantanamo since last spring, with 24 returning to their own countries, and 24 being sent to third countries: France (2), Belgium (1), Ireland (1), Italy (2, to be tried), Hungary (1), Portugal (2), Slovakia (3), Switzerland (1), Palau (6),and Bermuda (4)/. “We are currently in discussion with a number of governments, such as Spain, which had indicated that it will take a significant number of detainees,” Fried said. “Other European countries are planning to help us in similar fashion,” he said. “The governments of those countries should speak to the countries which have already taken in former detainees,” he suggested, accepting, however, that it was perfectly natural that the countries take their time. While in Brussels, Fried met the EU Anti-terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove and European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek. He also attended a meeting of the Political and Security Committee (PSC), at which he asked the countries which had already agreed to take in former detainees to consider taking another one, and those which had not accepted any former inmates to consider doing so. (B.C./transl.rt)