In an open letter, the human rights group urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to "indicate to US officials that Canada is prepared to accept for resettlement any of the men who wish to come to Canada."

As well, Mehmet Tohti of the Uyghur Canadian Association told the daily Globe and Mail he met with Canadian officials who "were not against" his proposal to accept the Uighurs as refugees. The group uses an alternative spelling of the word Uighur.

Tohti said eight Toronto churches and the Archdiocese of Montreal have agreed to sponsor them.

But a spokesman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney denied the claim, saying "reports that Canada is close to accepting three Uighur Guantanamo Bay detainees are false."

A group of 17 Uighurs has been held in limbo at Guantanamo, despite being cleared for release by the US government, because officials cannot find a country willing to take them.

Beijing has demanded the return of the 17 prisoners that it said were part of a terror group seeking an independent homeland in the northwestern province of Xinjiang.

But Washington held them back for fear the Chinese government would persecute or torture them.

The Uighurs were living in a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the US-led coalition bombing campaign began in October 2001. They fled to the mountains, but were turned over to Pakistani authorities, who then handed them over to the United States.

US authorities asked nearly two dozen nations to provide asylum for the Uighurs. So far, only Albania has accepted to take a group of five in 2006.

Canadian lawyers for three of them meanwhile have filed applications for refugee status in Canada.

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