LUXEMBOURG -- The European Union agreed on Monday to help the administration of President Barack Obama ''turn the page'' on Guantánamo, saying individual EU nations will take detainees from the Pentagon's prison camps in Cuba.

The EU and the U.S. issued a joint statement saying some EU nations are ready ``to assist with the reception of certain Guantánamo detainees, on a case-by-case basis.''

It did not name the countries or how many detainees would be resettled across the 27-nation bloc, but that Washington was ready pay toward the costs of their resettlement.

The United States seeks a home for those cleared for release from the Guantánamo Bay detention facility without trial but who cannot go to their own country for fear of ill-treatment.

About 40 of the 230 or so detainees left on Guantánamo fall in that category. Across the years, the U.S. held 778 detainees at Guantánamo. The first arrived in early 2002 as the United States widened its global war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and Washington.

Some EU nations have already accepted their own nationals from Guantánamo, while Albania, France, Sweden and Britain have also accepted non-citizens.

Germany is assessing a request to accept two after having refused at least nine. It will only accept people who pose no security risk and have some ''connection'' with Germany, German officials said. Berlin also wants Washington to say why they cannot be resettled in the United States.

The EU-U.S. declaration states ''the primary responsibility'' for closing Guantánamo and resettling detainees rests with Washington and that accepting ex-detainees and resolving their legal status is up to EU governments.

It commits EU governments to share any data on incoming detainees with other EU governments and forces Washington to share ``confidential and other intelligence and information.''

Referring to Obama's bid to develop ''a new, more sustainable approach'' to security issues, the joint statement said ''the EU and its member states wish to help the U.S. turn the page'' on an issue that has caused deep trans-Atlantic divisions.

EU official Jonathan Faull said he saw it as ''a new beginning'' in EU-U.S. relations with ``a resounding commitment on both sides to the rule of law and the respect for fundamental rights in the fight against international terrorism.''

Last week, Thomas Hammarberg -- Europe's top human rights official at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France -- urged European governments to take in ex-Guantánamo detainees.

He said there were 50 or so -- from Algeria, China, Libya, the Palestinian territories, Russia, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Uzbekistan -- who cannot go home for fear of ill-treatment there.

Associated Press writer Aoife White in Brussels contributed to this story.

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