The so-called international efforts to combat terrorism in the Horn of Africa are being orchestrated from the USS Mount Whitney

Additional reporting by Ali Halni, IOL Djibouti Correspondent

MOGADISHU, December 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The government of Djibouti denied press reports it had conceded to the construction of a Guantanamo-styled detention camp where the United States would held suspected terrorists in the Horn of Africa.

The Djibouti news agency on Friday, December 27, quoted Colonel Youssef Qayad, deputy commander of the country's forces, as dismissing such reports as baseless.

American and western troops are present in Djibouti as part of the international war on terror and has noting to do with the building of a prison for people arrested in this connection, he said.

The meeting of the international committee on terror-combat in Djibouti earlier last week was to discuss ways to activate the missions of these troops in the region, he said.

According to Qayad, military officials from the United States, France, Germany and Spain, which all have military present on the Djibouti soil or in its territorial waters, took part in the meeting.

The deputy commander ruled out an threat against the American and western forces in Djibouti.

Last week, the U.S. State Department warned Americans living or traveling in eastern Africa, particularly Kenya and Djibouti, to beware of attacks, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The U.S. government has received information, the credibility of which has not been confirmed, that similar attacks may also occur in Djibouti," said the statement.

The department "believes that Djibouti is one of a number of countries in east Africa where there may be an increased terrorist threat" , said a statement.

On its edition Monday, December 24, the Somali Qarn daily quoted diplomatic sources in Djibouti as saying that the United States intends to build a detention camp inside Djibouti to hold "terrorist" elements to be apprehended in American operations in the Horn of Africa.

It added that the American troops would launch a wide-scale combing operation in the Horn of Africa with the beginning of the new year 2003 to hunt down "terrorists" and lock them up in the new Guantanamo-styled detention.

Speaking last week in a press conference in Djibouti, U.S. Marine Major General John F. Sattler, head of the Combined Joint Task Force to fight terrorism in the Horn of Africa, said the mission of the American troops as to prevent terrorist organizations from taking safe haven in the Horn of Africa and to track down terrorist groups in the region.

He confirmed that U.S. forced would stay in the region for years to ensure that there are no "terrorist" activities in the Horn of Africa.

Some 900 U.S. troops are stationed at a fast-expanding support centre in Djibouti; a former French foreign legion base called Camp Lemonier.

The so-called international efforts to combat terrorism in the Horn of Africa are being orchestrated from the USS Mount Whitney, a 620-feet of floating steel, bristling with high technology and about 80 acres of parched terrain in Djibouti.

Mount Whitney is a command ship commissioned in 1971 and now boasting communications and intelligence facilities described by the U.S. military as "second to none".

The U.S. troops aboard the Whitney and a host of military personnel from various countries constantly monitor the region's waters with equipment ranging from modest binoculars to sophisticated aerial surveillance.

All intelligence gathered by coalition partners pass through the Whitney's joint operations centre, a darkened room in the bowels of the ship kitted out with an array of computers and communications facilities, including live network news broadcasts.