Brussels, 26/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said on Friday 22 May that Belgium remained ready to take in more than one Guantanamo detainee once the prison there is closed. “We are ready to carefully assess whether we can accept some of these detainees in Belgium and the Americans appreciate this fact,” he said after meeting his US counterpart, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. When asked by the Belgian media during his visit to Washington, De Gucht said that the number of detainees Belgium could take in remained to be decided. At any rate, he added, there would be a small number of detainees and there would also be conditions attached. He stressed that the issue was complicated by the freedom of movement rules within the Schengen area, which could allow former Guantanamo inmates to take up residence in another country without informing the authorities. A former Guantanamo detainee, cleared by the US justice authorities of all wrong-doing, arrived in France on 15 May. Algerian national Lakhdar Boumediene (42), who had spent seven years imprisoned at the Guantanamo base, will been granted a limited visa, but not be able to move freely within the Schengen area. EU home affairs ministers, who will meet in Luxembourg on 4 June, will discuss a coordinated European approach on taking in Guantanamo detainees. (B.C./transl.rt)