President Bush has told a German television interviewer he would like to shut the terrorist detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that a judgment by the Supreme Court expected in June would be the deciding factor.

He said he had to wait for the Supreme Court to rule on whether those imprisoned at Guantanamo should be tried by military or civilian courts, the BBC reported. The prison camp, which was opened in January 2002, currently houses about 490 detainees.

White House National Security Council spokesman, Frederick Jones said the president was repeating the administration policy that America “has no intention of permanently detaining individuals.” “We want to see all these individuals brought to justice,” Mr. Jones said.

Mr. Bush also said yesterday he is going to take up German chancellor Angela Merkel’s invitation to visit where she grew up behind what was once the Iron Curtain when he visits the country in July.

He told the German newspaper Bild, “We’re all products of how we are raised and, in many ways, where we were raised. If people want to get to know me better, they’ve got to know my parents and the values my parents instilled in me, and the fact that I was raised in West Texas, in the middle of the desert, a long way away from anywhere, hardly.

“At least where I’m from, inviting somebody to your home is a gesture of generosity,” the president said in the Oval Office interview conducted Friday.