By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, May 10 (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights investigator said on Thursday he hoped to interview terrorism suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay as part of a visit to the United States later this month.

Martin Scheinin, U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, said he planned to probe U.S. anti-terrorism laws, interview security detainees and attend "high-profile" trials during the May 16-25 visit.

He would also raise the issues of CIA "extraordinary rendition" and secret detention with senior U.S. officials.

But it was not clear whether he would get clearance to visit the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where nearly 400 inmates with alleged ties to al Qaeda or the Taliban are being held, most for years without charge.

"Guantanamo is not formally off the table at this stage but time is getting very short. We will see," Scheinin told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The independent U.N. investigator, a constitutional and international law professor in Finland, reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council, which holds its next session in mid-June.

A centrepiece of his probe would be the Military Commissions Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush last October, which authorises tough interrogation of terrorism suspects and a new system of military trials, Scheinin said.

The law was prompted by a Supreme Court ruling that said Bush lacked the legislative authority in setting up his first system of military commissions after the deadly Sept 11 attacks.

"The Military Commissions Act is ... an effort to redefine through domestic legislation what is valid under international law," Scheinin said, naming the Geneva Conventions.

"It covers admissibility and inadmissibility of evidence in respect of those trials and authorises in certain circumstances the use as evidence of information obtained by coercion. This is of concern," he said.

Secret abduction and detention of suspects by the United States has been widely attacked, with rights groups arguing such methods are illegal and frequently lead to abuse and torture.

Bush acknowledged last September that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had run a secret detention programme for terrorist suspects and strongly defended it, saying the intelligence gleaned had saved lives.

"It's still a very open question when somebody has a right to a trial and where they are kept," Scheinin said.

The U.N. investigator also said that he would "observe high-profile trials", but declined to be more specific.

A Miami jury is scheduled to hear opening statements next Monday in the trial of former "dirty bomber" suspect Jose Padilla and two other men on charges of supporting terrorism.

Scheinin said that he would also look into the 2001 USA Patriot Act, U.S. surveillance methods including wiretapping, as well as racial, ethnic and religious profiling.

AlertNet news is provided by