WASHINGTON -Vice President Cheney, reacting to a growing chorus of calls to close the American prison at Guantanamo Bay where terrorism suspects are held, says there are no present plans to do so.

“The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people,” he said.

“I mean, these are terrorists for the most part. These are people that were captured in the battlefield of Afghanistan or rounded up as part of the Al Qaeda network,” he said in an interview to be aired today on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes.”

Human rights activists and some lawmakers – mostly Democrats – are pressing for the prison’s closure because of allegations of torture and abuse of detainees.

Senator Martinez of Florida on Friday became the first high-profile Republican to say the administration should consider closing the prison.

“It’s become an icon for bad stories and at some point, you wonder the cost benefit ratio,” Mr. Martinez said. “How much do you get out of having that facility there? Is it serving all the purposes you thought it would serve when initially you began it, or can this be done some other way a little better?”

President Bush has said his administration is “exploring all alternatives” for detaining the prisoners. “We’ve already screened the detainees there and released a number, sent them back to their home countries,” Mr. Cheney said in the interview taped Friday. “But what’s left is hard-core.”

He said Mr. Bush and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld have “both emphasized the importance that you need to have the capability to imprison detainees that we capture during the course of the war on terror.”

The prison in Cuba holds about 540 detainees. Some have been there more than three years without being charged with any crime. Most were captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 and were sent to Guantanamo in hope of extracting useful intelligence about the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

With the fate of the prison camp a leading topic on the Sunday talk shows, Senator Hagel said America is “losing the image war around the world” and Guantanamo is one reason.

“It’s identifiable with, for right or wrong, a part of America that people in the world believe is a power, an empire that pushes people around, we do it our way, we don’t live up to our commitments to multilateral institutions,” Mr. Hagel, a Republican of Nebraska, told CNN’s “Late Edition.”

The Pentagon said in a statement yesterday that it “does not wish to hold detainees longer than necessary and effective processes are in place to regularly review the status of enemy combatants.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee plans a hearing Wednesday on the issue of detainees.

“We’ve actually created a legal black hole there. … I think as long as that exists, we are going to have one more rallying cry against the United States,” said Senator Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the committee.

Senator Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, said closing Guantanamo would be an “overreaction,” but said the administration and Congress need to set uniform standards for interrogations and detention.

Time magazine reported yesterday on an 84-page document detailing the Guantanamo interrogation of one de tainee, Mohamed al-Qahtani.

He was captured during the war in Afghanistan. It was learned later he had tried to enter the U.S. in Orlando, Fla., in August 2001, but was turned away by an immigration agent at the airport. Mohamed Atta, the September 11 ringleader, was in the airport at the same time, American officials have said.

Military intelligence officials at Guantanamo Bay got permission to use intensive interrogation techniques on two prisoners, including Mr. al-Qahtani, who were deemed to be important Al Qaeda figures, the commander of U.S. Southern Command has said.

Time said interrogators used such techniques as dripping water on Mr. al-Qahtani’s head; strip-searching him and making him stand nude, and depriving him of sleep.

The Defense Department said in response that the interrogation of Mr. al-Qahtani “was guided by a very detailed plan and conducted by trained professionals motivated by a desire to gain actionable intelligence, to include information that might prevent additional attacks on America.”