Rights watchdog Amnesty International has urged the next US president to close the "war on terror" prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, ban all forms of torture and stop propping authoritarian regimes.

In its annual report, Amnesty said it was crucial for the new US leader to restore America's moral authority around the world following President George W. Bush's administration's "dismal record.

"As the world's most powerful state, the USA sets the standard for government behavior globally," it said.

"With breathtaking legal obfuscation, the US administration has continued its efforts to weaken the absolute prohibition against torture and other ill-treatment," it said "The world needs a USA genuinely engaged and committed to the cause of human rights, at home and abroad."

The Bush administration has come under fire over its treatment of terror suspects and its past use of waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique that it refuses to call torture.

"In November 2008, the US people will elect a new President,"  Amnesty said as senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battle for the Democratic nomination to face Republican candidate John McCain. "For the USA to have moral authority as a human rights champion, the next administration must close Guantanamo and either try the detainees in ordinary federal courts or release them," the London-based group said."It must ban evidence obtained through coercion and denounce all forms of torture and other ill-treatment no matter to what end," it said. "It must ditch support for authoritarian leaders."

"And it must be ready to end US isolation in the international human rights system and engage constructively with the UN Human Rights Council." Amnesty also criticized Washington's support for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally of the United States in the "war on terror."

"The hollowness of the US administration's call for democracy and freedom abroad was displayed in its continued support of President Musharraf as he arrested thousands of lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders and political activists," it said. While McCain, Clinton and Obama have all vowed to close Guantanamo, they have not indicated what they would do with the hundreds of detainees.

All three candidates have denounced the use of torture, although McCain, who was tortured while a prisoner of war in Vietnam, refused in February to support legislation limiting the type of interrogation methods available to the CIA. Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan said that regardless of who gets into the White House, Washington needs to realize that Guantanamo Bay is a "millstone around the neck of the US administration" and it needs to be shut.

"The US is the world superpower which sets the agenda for other states' behavior also," Khan told AFP.
"The world needs the US to be engaged on human rights issues"  for example through the UN Human Rights Council, she said. "In order to do that it has to send a signal that it's shifted direction" and is prepared to "subject itself to the same rules and human rights as it expects others" to be, Khan said.