LONDON - Four out of the five British residents being held in Guantanamo Bay are to be released, the BBC said Friday it had learnt.
Jamil El Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdennour Samuer will return to Britain, while Shaker Aamer will return to his native Saudi Arabia, the British Broadcasting Corporation said.
A fifth man, Ethiopian citizen Binyam Mohamed, will remain at the controversial "war on terror" prison camp.
The BBC, which did not give a source for its story, said an announcement was expected within weeks.
The men are not British citizens but all lived in the country legally before being detained at the US naval base on Cuba.
The Foreign Office in London would not confirm the reports but said negotiations were ongoing.
"We are not going to speculate or comment on where the discussions that we are having with the Americans have got to," a spokesman told AFP.
"We have had detailed discussions with the Americans, taking forward the requests that the foreign secretary and the home secretary made earlier this year for the five to be released.
"We considered the circumstances of each case with the United States and we are in contact with the families and the legal representatives of the five.
"It is a complex issue and we are not prepared to give a step-by-step account of where this process is.
"Whilst the discussions are ongoing we are not going to make further comment."
All British nationals detained in the controversial Guantanamo prison camp were released by January 2005.
In August, Foreign Secretary David Miliband requested that the five residents be returned, reversing London's previous stance of refusing to get involved in the cases of residents without British nationality.
rjm/bm
12/07/2007 23:51 GMT