Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemen is setting up a centre where more than 100 Yemenis are to undergo rehabilitation after their expected release from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a state newspaper reported Thursday.

The centre is being built with US government assistance, the Defence Ministry mouthpiece publication 26 September said, citing well-informed official sources.

In the new facility, the inmates would undergo a series of "edification programmes based on moderation to shun extremism and terrorism," the paper, which is close to the president's office, said.

Yemeni authorities are to receive the Yemeni Guantanamo detainees shortly after the centre is built, it added.

The centre would accommodate the inmates and their families, the paper said.

US President Barack Obama on his first day in office on Tuesday ordered the suspension of prosecutions at Guantanamo for 120 days.

About 100 of about 250 detainees at the controversial prison camp are Yemenis. They have become the single largest nationality imprisoned at Guantanamo as the prison's population steadily declined from a peak of 600 in 2003.

Thirteen Yemenis have been released from the facility since it was set up in 2002.

Of these, five were later released by Yemeni authorities while the rest were put on trial in Yemen for falsifying identification documents.

None was charged with terrorism-related activities.

On November 26, Yemen received Salim Hamdan, the former driver of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was released from Guantanamo at the end of his jail term handed down by a military commission over supporting terrorism.

Hamdan, 40, was detained for six weeks in an intelligence prison in Sana'a before he was released. (dpa)