Pentagon demands $450 mln for Guantanamo Bay prison maintenance

The Pentagon has asked Congress to give them more than 450 million dollars for maintaining and upgrading the Guantanamo Bay prison, which President Barack Obama wants to close.

The details of the administration's budget request emerged on Tuesday and underscored the contradiction of Obama waging a political fight to close r the facility while the military calculates the financial requirements to keep the installation operating.

According to the Huffington Post, the Pentagon also wants 200 million dollars for military construction to upgrade temporary facilities.

The facility at the U.S. naval base in Cuba currently holds 166 prisoners, and hunger strikes by 100 of them over their indefinite detention and prison conditions prompted Obama to renew his effort to close Guantanamo.

He is expected to discuss the future of the facility in a speech on counter-terrorism on Thursday.

Since his inauguration in January 2009, Obama has pushed for shutting the prison, signing an executive order for closure during his first week in office.

According to the report, he has faced resistance in Congress with Republicans and some Democrats repeatedly blocking efforts to transfer terror suspects to the United States.