DUBLIN - UN human rights chief Mary Robinson said on Thursday it was extremely important that Afghan prisoners held by the United States in Cuba were treated according international human rights and humanitarian law.

Robinson, one of the most outspoken champions of the rights of 80 prisoners held by the US at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, said at a conference in Dublin that respect for human rights had come under increasing pressure since the September 11 hijack attacks in the US sparked the Afghan war.

"I'm concerned that we should be putting forward the importance of international human rights and humanitarian law confidently as part of what we have achieved, not sort of reluctantly trying to fudge or blur the edges," Robinson said.

"It's extremely important that the legal status of those detained in Guantanamo Bay is clarified," she added.

"They were combatants in an international conflict. It may be that some of them have also been involved in the al Qaeda conspiracy, that's quite likely, but they are entitled to POW (prisoner of war) status or if that is defeated there is provision in the Geneva Convention that it goes before a tribunal.

"I think these standards are more important at times like this," she told reporters.

The United States maintains that the prisoners it has captured in Afghanistan, and who are being transferred for detention in Cuba, are "unlawful combatants" and not guaranteed rights under the 1949 Geneva Convention which covers POWs.

The US has stuck to its guns despite a growing international outcry over the prisoners being shackled and hooded for travel and then held in outdoor cages at the base.

"One good development obviously is that representatives of the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) will be visiting Guantanamo Bay and that will be important," she said.

The ICRC said a team was standing by in Miami and could leave on Thursday for Cuba to visit the Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners.

The Dublin conference brought together 100 human rights activists from 70 countries to discuss what many of them said was growing infringement on human rights by governments taking advantage of September 11 to clamp down on dissent and opposition. - Nampa-Reuters