The report was due to be delivered to the White House by Saturday as part of a landmark executive order issued by Obama last month mandating the closure of the "war on terror" detention camp.

The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the review conducted by Admiral Patrick Walsh found that detainees were treated humanely, in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and other laws recognized by the United States.

The official said the report also makes "recommendations and observations" but declined to reveal those details.

The New York Times reported on its website Friday that the review recommends easing the isolation of the inmates by allowing them to speak to each other more often and to engage in more recreation and group activities.

Human rights groups have previously made similar suggestions and said the inmates were subjected to near total isolation with little human contact apart from guards and interrogators.

Even before the review was officially released, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the conclusions as a "whitewash" of alleged abuses of detainees under former president George W. Bush.

"Candidate Obama himself acknowledged that Guantanamo was a violation of domestic and international law. That's why the reported review, sweeping the abusive Bush policies under the rug, is so troubling," Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in a statement.

"The only way to get an accurate assessment of conditions at Guantanamo is through an objective review by independent parties who have complete access to the facility as well as government documents detailing the conditions at Guantanamo over the past seven years," Romero said.

Amnesty International doubted the accuracy of the report, which director Tom Parker said in a statement "comes as no surprise."

"Human rights organizations are still being denied access to the facility and the detainees. But even without the ability to conduct a proper independent review, enough is known to cast doubt on the accuracy of the Pentagon's report," he added.

The US Defense Department confirmed it had finished the review but would not comment further.

"The report has been completed and it will be delivered to the White House," Pentagon spokesman Commander Jeffrey Gordon told AFP.

Obama's executive order, issued on January 22, gave Defense Secretary Robert Gates 30 days to conduct the review.

Obama's administration on Friday stepped up efforts to shut the Guantanamo prison, appointing former federal prosecutor to determine the fate of the camp's remaining 240 prisoners -- release, transfer to another country or prosecution un US courts.

The "Guantanamo Detainee Review Task Force," led by former Department of Justice official Matthew Olson, was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder days before his visit to the war-on-terror detention facility.

The prison, located at a remote US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been condemned by rights groups and foreign governments as a legal black hole, holding many detainees for years without charges or prospect of a trial.

The Defense Department has always maintained the detainees have been held under humane and lawful conditions.

But rights groups have raised concerns that the United States risked violating its legal obligations by holding a large number of the inmates in extreme isolation.

The Geneva convention rules are based on the premise that a prisoner of war is not a criminal, merely an adversary one does not wish to see resume armed combat. The convention requires that the detainee be treated humanely and released once a conflict is over.

US military officials and rights advocates have disagreed over how to define humane treatment under the Geneva rules.

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