Monday, May 22 2006 10:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The United States has said it does not want to be the 'world's jailers' and was eager to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility but asserted 'dangerous people' there would not be set free.

"No one would like to shut down Guantanamo more than this administration. We don't want to be the world's jailers," US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told a series of Sunday Talk Shows.

"But I would ask people to answer.Then what do we do with the hundreds of dangerous people there who were caught on the battlefield, who are known to have connections, who regularly say that, if they're released, they're going to go back to killing Americans? Do you really want those people on the streets?" she said.

Pressed for an answer whether Guantanamo detention centre will not be closed Rice replied, "In time of course it will be closed. It's my hope that that time is coming".

Rice refused to provide a time table for the shut down of the US facility in Cuba.

"I'm not going to talk in timetables. What we can talk about is what results we want. And we want a result in which we are certain that dangerous people are not going to be let back out onto the streets," Rice said.

"Guantanamo is a necessity because of the nature of the war on terror, but lots of changes have been made there," Rice said when pointed out about the observation of a UN Panel that the facility has to be shut down.