WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay should be shut down before President Barack Obama leaves office, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said Thursday, saying the facility is a "rallying cry for jihadi propaganda."

A renewed push by the White House to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been bogged down by an internal disagreement over its most controversial provision — where to house detainees who will be brought to the United States for trial or indefinite detention, according to U.S. officials.

President Barack Obama made the closure of the controversial offshore prison a priority when he took office in 2009, but the plan has faced numerous setbacks, including Congress blocking the transfer of detainees to U.S. prisons.

Scholars and military experts say it's difficult to see how the United States can overhaul its relationship with Cuba while hanging on to Guantanamo Bay Naval Station indefinitely, especially if relations warm significantly in a post-Castro era.

Uruguay resettled six Guantánamo inmates as refugees in December in a bid to help U.S. President Barack Obama fulfill his long-delayed promise to close the offshore prison. But the country's new leader says no more.

U.S. officials, describing administration plans to significantly reduce the Guantanamo population over the next six months, said they are in talks with a wide range of countries that they hope will accept all 64 detainees now approved for transfer.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – The United States has assured Uruguay that "no information exists" to link to terrorist activities to six former Guantanamo prisoners now living in the South American country, Uruguay's President José Mujica said Tuesday. Mujica also showed a letter in which the refugees express their "eternal gratitude."

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Six detainees held at the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were transferred to Uruguay over the weekend, months after the South American country agreed to accept the men, the Pentagon announced Sunday.

President Luis Guillermo Solís said he had not considered a request urging Latin American countries to accept some of the 79 detainees cleared for release from from the controversial Guantánamo prison.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Pentagon recently notified members of Congress that it intends to transfer six low-level detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Uruguay soon, including a Syrian man who is legally challenging the manner in which the military force-feeds some prisoners, U.S. officials said Wednesday.