Washington  - Italy has agreed to take in three detainees from the US prison facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, US President Barack Obama said Monday after a meeting with Italian President Silvio Berlusconi.

Obama has promised to close the facility at Guantanamo by the end of the year and is negotiating with a number of countries to take in those prisoners who have no longer been deemed a threat.

Obama said the offer showed that Italy's commitment to help close Guantanamo was "not just talk." The announcement also comes after the United States and European Union agreed on a "framework" Monday for EU countries to accept detainees.

"It will give us an opportunity to create a lasting and durable international legal framework for dealing with terrorism that I think is very important on both sides of the Atlantic," Obama said of the US-EU deal.

The Obama administration last week sent three Saudi detainees, one Iraqi and one Chadian back to their homelands.

Four Uighurs held for years at the prison were also resettled on the Atlantic island of Bermuda and the US is in talks to send another 13 Chinese Muslims to the Pacific island of Palau. The US has refused to send them back to China out of fear they could be tortured.

The United States is also reportedly nearing a deal that could send some of the remaining 100 Yemenis to Saudi Arabia. Yemenis make up the largest group at Guantanamo. Washington opposes sending them home because it believes security measures in Yemen are inadequate.

With the three detainees headed to Italy, there would be 226 prisoners remaining in the controversial facility. (dpa)