WASHINGTON -- Against a backdrop of growing bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill over treatment of terrorist suspects held without charges at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday emphatically shot down speculation that the prison will close.

At the same time, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., held a news conference to insist that inmates at Guantanamo "have never been more comfortable in their lives." He said 12 who were released were later caught carrying weapons, presumably intended to harm U.S. soldiers.

Speaking at the National Press Club, Cheney said the prison's mission of holding "enemy combatants" for interrogation is a good and valid one. He also insisted that the controversy over conditions in the prison, which Amnesty International likened to a Soviet-style "gulag," is not hurting the United States in world opinion.

"Now, does this hurt us from the standpoint of international opinion? I, frankly, don't think so," Cheney said. "And my own personal view of it is that those who are most urgently advocating that we shut down Guantanamo probably don't agree with our policies anyway. And that from the perspective of how we proceed there, I think these people have been treated far better than they could be expected to have been treated by virtually any other government on the face of the earth."

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan endorsed the vice president's strong defense of Guantanamo, which Cheney later repeated on the Fox network. But in an indication that the White House is worried about the controversy, McClellan also said President Bush believes that "we should never limit our options." McClellan said that meant the status of the prison and its prisoners is always under review.

Tomorrow, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is to host hearings about Guantanamo conditions before his panel.

Over the weekend, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member and likely 2008 presidential candidate, said Guantanamo is one reason the U.S. image has been tarnished overseas. On CNN's "Late Edition," he stopped short of calling for the facility's closure but angered some in the administration by saying, "This can't be a situation where we hold them forever and ever and ever, until they die of old age."

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, already has demanded that the prison be closed, saying global reaction to charges of prisoner abuse there have endangered Americans around the world.

Hunter yesterday displayed typical meals served to prisoners at Guantanamo and said the government spends $12 a day for food for each Guantanamo inmate, twice as much as inmates in some Florida prisons.

"So the point is that the inmates in Guantanamo have never eaten better, they've never been treated better, and they've never been more comfortable in their lives than in this situation," he said.

Officials at the Pentagon, which administers the Guantanamo prison, said there was no wish to detain inmates longer than necessary. But they, like the White House, noted that many suspects there are considered "dangerous terrorists" and should not be set free.

Cheney yesterday said: "We have from time to time captured individuals who were part of the al-Qaida organization or the Taliban in Afghanistan, who were doing their level best to launch attacks to kill Americans, either on the battlefield or here in the United States. And many of them are now housed down at Guantanamo. ...

"If you put them back on the street, they will do their level best to return back to the battlefield or to complete their original mission of trying to kill Americans."

He said 540 to 545 Guantanamo inmates are "believed to be enemy combatants." The United States argues that because they didn't wear uniforms and because they are suspected in engaging in illegal behavior such as targeting civilians, they are not covered by the Geneva Convention, which governs treatment of military prisoners.

Cheney also said U.S. officials learned their lesson when they released 10 prisoners who then rejoined the Taliban or al-Qaida and targeted Americans.

Prisoners held at Guantanamo are well cared for, even though they are held without charges, Cheney said. "They've got the medical care and treatment they need. Their religious needs are met with.

"And, in fact, I think, if we didn't have that facility at Guantanamo to undertake this activity, we'd have to have it someplace else, because they're a vital source of intelligence information. They've given us useful information that has been used in pursuing our aims and objectives in the war on terror."