FACTBOX: Obama details Guantanamo detainee options

(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama sought on Thursday to clarify his plans for handling 240 foreign terrorism suspects imprisoned at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama has announced plans to close the prison by January 2010.

Some Guantanamo prisoners will be transferred to top-security prisons in the United States, Obama said. He pledged not to release any detainee within the United States who would endanger Americans or threaten U.S. security.

Obama identified five categories of detainees. Here is a summary of what the president said about how each of these five groups of detainees may be handled.

DETAINEES WHO BROKE U.S. CRIMINAL LAWS

The United States, when feasible, will bring to trial in U.S. federal courts detainees who can be charged with violating U.S. criminal laws.

DETAINEES WHO VIOLATED 'LAWS OF WAR'

The United States will use special trials run by the U.S. military, called military commissions, to prosecute detainees accused of violating "laws of war." The military panels, first established during the Bush administration, would allow for protection of sensitive sources and methods of intelligence-gathering, the safety and security of trial participants, and the presentation of evidence gathered from the battlefield that cannot be effectively presented in federal courts, Obama said.

DETAINEES ALREADY ORDERED TO BE RELEASED

There are 21 detainees who have been ordered by U.S. courts to be released. Obama did not say where they would be sent.