BERLIN -- The United States has asked Germany to accept some Guantánamo prisoners when the facility is closed, the Interior Ministry said Sunday, confirming German media reports.

An Interior Ministry spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the ministry's policy, confirmed a report in Der Spiegel magazine that the U.S. has provided a list of names of prisoners it would like Germany to accept.

''There is a concrete request,'' the spokesman said, saying he could not provide any further details.

Der Spiegel reported, without citing sources, that the U.S. had asked Germany to accept 10 prisoners.

Top-selling Bild newspaper, meanwhile, reported the 10 were Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs. It also did not cite sources.

President Barack Obama has ordered the military prison in Cuba shuttered in the next nine months.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at the end of April that the U.S. Justice Department is still trying to determine how many of the 241 prisoners in Guantánamo will be taken by other countries.

Also at the end of April, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spent several days privately asking European leaders in London, Prague and Berlin for help relocating prisoners the United States wants to set free.

In Berlin, Holder said the United States had made decisions on a group of about 30 prisoners, but had not yet decided where it wants to send them.

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