The US Supreme Court rejected Monday an appeal by five Chinese Uighurs who have been held without charge at Guantanamo since 2002 and are seeking resettlement in the United States.

The prisoners are among a group of 22 Uighurs arrested at a camp in the mountains of Afghanistan after the US-led coalition bombing campaign began there in 2001, a month after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The Uighurs -- members of a largely Muslim people who have long accused China of discrimination -- were cleared several years ago of wrongdoing. They are staying in a special part of the prison with a library and recreational space.

Palau has offered to accept them, but the men do no want to be resettled on the Pacific island nation of 20,000 inhabitants where they have no cultural ties.

The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear their appeal, allowing a federal appeals court ruling -- which said they didn't have the right to resettle in the United States -- to stand.

At the heart of the case was whether the courts had the power to order the military to release Guantanamo prisoners.

In a brief statement, the Supreme Court said the "petitioners have received two offers of resettlement in countries (including Palau) the United States determined 'appropriate.'

"These offers, the lack of any meaningful challenge as to their appropriateness, and the government's uncontested commitment to continue to work to resettle petitioners transform (the) petitioners' claim," it said.

In principle, the United States would send cleared inmates to their home country. But it has refused China's demands to repatriate them, saying they would face almost certain persecution.

US lawmakers blocked attempts to free the men on US soil, arguing that they still pose a security threat despite public statements from President Barack Obama's administration to the contrary.

Of eight actions filed to the Supreme Court this session by Guantanamo detainees, only one remains pending, with all others having been dismissed.

The Obama administration initially hoped the Uighur case would be one of the easiest in its drive to shutter Guantanamo, considered by critics to be a potent symbol of former president George W. Bush's "war on terror" excesses.

But Obama has now gone well beyond his self-imposed January 2010 deadline to close the facility and the Uighurs are just one part of a complex and increasingly intractable problem.

The US Naval base still holds about 172 inmates.

The Obama administration aims to repatriate roughly 100 to their home countries and plans to try 33 for "war crimes" while keeping 48 detainees indefinitely behind bars without trial.

The White House recently reaffirmed its commitment to closing the prison, despite a decision to try the accused September 11 plotters at the controversial camp.

In a major U-turn, the administration announced earlier this month that it would try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged 9/11 plotters at Guantanamo in a military tribunal.

Uighurs hail from China's western Xinjiang region, which in 2009 witnessed some of the country's deadliest ethnic violence in years.

Many Uighurs bristle at what they see as cultural and religious persecution at the hands of China, which has sent in settlers from the country's Han majority. Beijing argues that it has spurred development in the arid region.

(AFP)