The Pentagon said Wednesday it had sent home two more war-on-terror detainees from the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba -- one to Sudan, the other to Algeria.

The Defense Department issued the statement one day after a federal judge in Washington ordered the Bush administration to bring before his court a total of 17 detainees.

All are Uighur Muslims, Chinese citizens whom the U.S. considers safe enough to release but at risk of persecution if they were returned to China.

U.S. District District Ricardo Urbino set Friday for their appearance, seen as a first step toward their release onto U.S. soil.

The Bush administration was appealing to a higher court.

Meantime, the latest transfer left the prison camps' population at ''approximately 255,'' according to the Pentagon statement. That includes some 60 detainees -- including the 17 Uighurs -- for whom the United States is seeking arrangements to resettle, either in their homelands or their countries.

Per Pentagon policy, the military did not identify the two men who were released.

But the Center for Constitutional Rights, which coordinates detainee lawsuits, identified the Algerian as Mammar Ameur, 50, who had been previously identified as having been given refugee status in Pakistan in 1996.

The Associated Press identified the Sudanese man as Mustafa Ibrahim Mustafa Al Hassan, 51. Defense Department documents say he was born in Al Menakil, and arrived at the prison camps in August 2002.

Upon his arrival in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, he held a news conference and accused the U.S. of religious and detainee abuses.

''The torture would never stop until you say you have participated in the war against the Americans,'' he was quoted as saying.

The Pentagon announcement said the United States has released 520 Guantánamo detainees to 30 nations aside from the United States since it opened the prison camps in January 2002.

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