Three Guantanamo Bay detainees have committed suicide at the US prison in Cuba, using nooses made of sheets and clothes to hang themselves.

The three detainees - whose names were not released - were the first reported deaths among hundreds of detainees held at the isolated base, some for as long as four and a half years without charge.

Two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen were found "unresponsive and not breathing in their cells" early on Saturday, according to a statement from the Miami-based US Southern Command, which has jurisdiction over the prison.

The US military's Joint Task Force at Guantanamo said that "the three detainees were pronounced dead by a physician after all lifesaving measures had been exhausted".

"They hanged themselves with fabricated nooses made out of clothes and bedsheets," Navy Rear Admiral Harry Harris said.

Bush reaction

Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, said George Bush, the president, "expressed serious concern" when told of the deaths.

Guantanamo officials say there have been 41 suicide attempts by 25 detainees, but no deaths since the US began taking prisoners to the base in January 2002.

Defense lawyers contend that the number of suicide attempts is higher.

Some 460 men - suspected of links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban - are being held at Guantanamo but only 10 have been charged with crimes and face military tribunals set up by George Bush, the US president.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on whether Bush overstepped his authority by ordering the tribunals.

Pushed to death

Moazzam Begg, 37, a British Muslim who spent three years in US detention, including two years at Guantanamo, before being released in 2005, told The Associated Press: "We all expected something like this but were not prepared. It's just awful. I hope the Bush administration will finally see this is wrong."

Barbara Olshansky of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, which represents about 300 Guantanamo Bay detainees, said it was not surprising that the three men committed suicide.

"I think people [detained at Guantanamo] have this incredible level of despair that they will never get justice.

"And now they're gone. And they died without ever having seen a court."

Olshansky said the US government "not only failed these people but pushed them on the road to death".

Growing defiance

The suicides come amid growing defiance at the prison.

On May 18, a detainee staged a suicide attempt to lure guards into a cellblock where they were attacked by prisoners armed with makeshift weapons, the military said.

Earlier that day, two detainees overdosed on antidepressants they collected from other detainees and hoarded in their cells.

The men have since recovered.

There also has been a hunger strike among detainees since August. The number of inmates refusing food dropped to 18 by last weekend from a high of 131.

The military has at times used aggressive force-feeding methods, including a restraint chair. Force-feeding is performed through tubes inserted into the nose.

Photo Caption

A Watchtower at the US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba