A British resident held at Guantanamo Bay could return to the UK as early as Monday.

Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian who had lived in west London, would be the first inmate of the Cuban prison to be transferred by President Barack Obama's administration.

Mohamed, 30, is one of two British residents at Guantanamo and has been locked up there since 2004. He claims to have been abused and tortured, with the knowledge of MI5 and the CIA, after his 2002 arrest in Pakistan.

Mohamed was accused of training at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, joining a squad of al-Qaeda bomb-makers in Pakistan and plotting to set off a radioactive bomb in the US.

In October, the Pentagon official overseeing the Guantanamo war crimes court dismissed all charges against Mohamed - who has said he falsely confessed to a radioactive "dirty bomb" plot while being tortured in a Moroccan prison.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said today the UK and US governments had "reached agreement" on the transfer of Binyam Mohamed. The detainee will return to Britain "as soon as the practical arrangements can be made", he said in a statement.

Evidence of Mohamed's alleged torture is contained in 42 classified documents that are the subject of legal proceedings.

Earlier this month, two High Court judges accused the US of threatening to end intelligence co-operation with the UK if the evidence was published. The court then ruled the reports could not be made available as this would breach national security.

The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, is consulting Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Keir Starmer, over whether to order a criminal investigation into intelligence and security agents' treatment of Mohamed.

Baroness Scotland, who is a Labour peer, stressed that she was acting "wholly independently of Government and in the public interest". She said it was not possible to give a precise timescale for when she would make her decision.

Mr Obama has ordered that Guantanamo be shut down. More than 200 prisoners remain at the facility and US Justice Department officials are reviewing their cases.

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