The Pentagon is seeking help from the US State Department and other agencies to transfer about half of the 540 detainees at the US base in Guantanamo, Cuba, to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen, The New York Times said yesterday quoting top US officials. Guantanamo was used to house terrorist suspects caught in Afghanistan and Iraq because it was thought to be beyond US laws guaranteeing basic rights to detainees, but recent court rulings allowing prisoners to challenge their detention have made the base less convenient, the officials said. The plan was backed by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a Feb. 5 memo, officials said, adding that it was part of a Pentagon effort to halve the Guantanamo prisoner population of about 540 by releasing some and transferring others for continued detention elsewhere.The sources expected resistance to the transfers from the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, which in the past have raised concerns that foreign governments could subject prisoners to mistreatment or could harm US security, the sources told the daily. The State Department would be responsible for negotiating agreements with foreign governments receiving the Guantanamo prisoners to ensure their humane treatment, officials said.