London - The US government must "redouble efforts" to resolve the future of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre after US President Barack Obama acknowledged that the deadline set for the facility's closure would be missed, Amnesty International said.

In a statement released in London late Wednesday, Amnesty said "significant concerns" over the detentions had been "reignited" by Obama's comments.

"The US authorities have allowed the Guantanamo detentions to become a political football, and the politics of fear to trump human rights," Susan Lee, director of the Americas Regional Programme, said in the statement.

"As should have been the case from day one, the government should resolve these detentions by either bringing the detainees to fair trial or immediately releasing them," she said.

So far, 26 detainees had been transferred from Guantanamo under the new US administration, leaving 215 still there, Amnesty said. (dpa)