WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Colin Powell has asked President George W Bush to reconsider a decision not to list detainees from Afghanistan being held in Cuba as prisoners of war, The Washington Times reported on Saturday.

"The secretary of state has requested that you reconsider that decision," a memo from White House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez to Bush said, according to the newspaper.

The memo marks a break from the Bush administration's decision to refuse to call the 158 al Qaeda and Taliban detainees prisoners of war, a designation that would give them certain rights under the Geneva Conventions.

The United States, which began flying them from Afghanistan to a hastily constructed prison at a naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba two weeks ago, has been strongly criticised by human rights groups and some foreign politicians for its treatment of the detainees on flights and at the base.

The newspaper reported that the four-page internal memo, dated Friday, shows the National Security Council plans to discuss Powell's request at a meeting on Monday morning.

"Specifically, he has asked that you conclude that GPW (Geneva Convention II on the Treatment of Prisoners of War) does apply to both al Qaeda and the Taliban," the newspaper quoted Gonzalez as saying in the memo.

"I understand, however, that he would agree that al Qaeda and Taliban fighters could be determined not to be prisoners of war (POWs) but only on a case-by-case basis following individual hearings before a military board," Gonzalez wrote.

According to the memo Gonzales and most, if not all, members of the president's national security team are urging Bush not to retreat on the issue, the newspaper said.

"On balance, I believe that the arguments for reconsideration and reversal are unpersuasive," Gonzalez reportedly wrote. - Nampa-Reuters