The United States has agreed to release some 20 Pakistani prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay jail in Cuba by the end of this month, a senior Pakistani officialsaid here on Wednesday.

The United States has already freed 24 Pakistani prisoners fromGuantanamo and according to Pakistani officials there are still 40Pakistanis there.

Faced with growing criticism at home on the continuous detention of these suspects, the Pakistani government has been trying to persuade the United States for an early release of all its remaining citizens.

Last month, a three-member Pakistani team discussed the possible release of remaining Pakistani prisoners with the US official in Washington.

Director General of the Crisis Management Cell in Pakistani Interior Ministry Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, who led the Pakistani delegation in Washington talks, said in Islamabad on Wednesday the US has agreed to free 20 more Pakistanis.

A Pakistan investigative team, led by Cheema, had met most of these detainees last year in Guantanamo, and the team late said that majority of the Pakistanis were innocent and did not have any direct links with al-Qaeda and Taliban.

Hundreds of Pakistanis were arrested in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban because of suspected links with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

In March, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri announcedthat Islamabad and Washington had agreed to jointly screen the remaining Pakistani prisoners for their possible release from detention.

The announcement of the release of Pakistan has come at a time when the United States is being criticized for abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The first Pakistani freed from Guantanamo, Mohammad Sagheer, has demanded 10.4 million dollars as compensation for what he called his illegal detention.

Source: Xinhua