GUANTANAMO, Cuba, (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States plans to force-feed two inmates at its detention camp at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuban, news agencies reported.

A U.S. military spokesman said the two would be fed intravenously on Sunday if they continued to refuse food.

The two men, who have been receiving hospital treatment for several days, appear to be protesting at the uncertainty of their future at Camp X-ray.

The two were left after three of the Afghan war detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba are on a "long-term fast" and will be force-fed nutrition if they continue not to eat.

The men are two of three detainees who went on a hunger strike in Camp X-ray. One of the three men ate food Wednesday, leaving the other two in dire medical need, said Capt. Al Shimkus, the commanding officer of the base's naval hospital.

"Two detainees require medical intervention to prevent severe illness and eventually death," he said, CNN reported.

The three are among a group of 31 suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters who have refused meals for the past seven days.

The detention center houses 300 men detained by the U.S. since the 11 September attacks in its war against terrorism.

U.S. military officials, who are reluctant to call it a "hunger strike," said the detainees are fasting to make a political statement and to try to speed up the process that will determine their fate, CNN online reported.

Major James Bell said the authorities' chief concern was the two men's welfare. "We're hoping that they're considering the importance of their lives," he said.

"We'll do everything we can to help them because that's a priority for us, the humane treatment of the detainees - and that includes preserving their lives."

The U.S. has been accused by the Amnesty International of mistreating Guanatanamo detainees.

Since the start of their hospital treatment, the two have been receiving liquids intravenously. The detainees were nearly all captured in Afghanistan, but they are not regarded as prisoners-of-war by Washington and have yet to face trial.

Major Bell said the hunger strike was not motivated by any religious consideration, but was "an individual choice,” BBC’s online service reported.

Shimkus said a Muslim scholar at the base was meeting with those who are fasting to explain the process of involuntary feeding.”

"The chaplain will be there to interpret as well as allow them to better understand what they are doing to themselves in the starvation element."

Should involuntary feeding become necessary, he said, a tube would be placed through the nose and into the stomach. A "suitable nutritional supplement" would then be administered.

"Prior to this course of treatment," Shimkus said, "the detainees will be given the opportunity to consume food orally and be advised that if he chooses not to eat, he'll be fed involuntarily."

"I tell them that this is wrong," said the scholar, Navy Lieutenant Abuhena Saiful-Islam. "The Koran says that you should not do anything to harm your own body."

According to Major Bell, the other detainees ate breakfast on Saturday, although 45 had been refusing meals as recently as Thursday.

He pointed out that the two who said they were still fasting might have had food passed to them by other detainees. "We don't have a 100% method of confirming whether or not an individual has eaten."

In a special report issued earlier this month by Amnesty International, said that some detainees in U.S. jails have been subjected to verbal and physical abuse.

The report said the suspected detained in the U.S. have been denied access to lawyers and were given poor health care in the months following the September 11 attacks.

The most serious accusations involved allegations of physical abuse of detainees by guards. The report said a detainee who spoke no English and was slow to comply with an order to get out of bed had his head rammed into a table by a guard, chipping a tooth.

Amnesty International report also said they remain deeply concerned that, although they are not charged with crimes, many post September 11 detainees are held in punitive conditions in jails, sometimes alongside people charged or convicted of criminal offences.