LONDON (AP) - Britain called Tuesday for the Bush administration to release five British
residents held at Guantanamo Bay - a policy reversal that suggests new Prime Minister Gordon Brown is pursuing a tougher line with the U.S. than his predecessor.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking that the five men be freed, the Foreign Office said.
The new call contrasts with former Prime Minister Tony Blair's refusal for years to intervene in most Guantanamo cases. His government pressed for the release of nine British citizens, and one resident who had provided help to British intelligence services. But it refused to intervene in the plight of other British residents, saying as recently as March that it could not help people who were not citizens.
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