Australia has again told the United States that it will not resettle detainees freed from the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.

Julia Gillard is Australia's acting prime minister.

She said the government had rejected a similar resettlement request in early 2008.

"Those resettlement requests have been considered on a case-by-case basis against our stringent national security and immigration criteria."

The Bush administration made the latest request in December after President-elect Barack Obama promised to close the prison.

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates has called for proposals to transfer the remaining 250 or so detainees.

Some of the detainees have been held without charge since the prison camp opened in 2002 to hold what Washington calls "enemy combatants" accused of having links to the al-Qaida terror network or Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime.