Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has offered to accept Guantanamo detainees for resettlement in Venezuela.
Washington expressed no interest in the offer to take in any of the 240 remaining Guantanamo detainees after they are released from the US military prison.
Mr Chavez said he would have "no problem" accepting any of the remaining detainees in Venezuela. In an interview with Arabic-language Al-Jazeera news network during his trip this week to this Persian Gulf country, Chavez also urged President Barack Obama to free the remaining detainees and return the surrounding US Navy base to Cuba.
But the State Department said in a statement that "the United States has not received a formal offer through diplomatic channels to resettle detainees to Venezuela and is not contemplating resettling detainees to Venezuela."
President Chavez has frequently criticised the US military prison, but the socialist leader also has praised Obama's pledge to close it within a year. As for the detainees, Mr Chavez said "we would have no problem in receiving a human being."
President Chavez's remarks to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera were later released by Venezuela's Information Ministry.
As part of President Obama's closure order, US officials are deciding which of the remaining detainees should be shipped away to foreign countries and which should be tried, either in civilian US courts or in some other setting.
Prisoners transferred to third countries, mainly in Europe, would be those determined to pose no threat but who cannot be sent back to their homelands because of the risk of persecution. Several European nations, including Ireland, Portugal and Lithuania, have said they will consider taking such detainees.
Venezuela's relations with the US deteriorated in recent years as President Chavez crusaded against what he calls the US "empire." In September, he expelled the US ambassador to Venezuela and recalled his envoy to Washington. And while he has expressed a desire for improved relations under Obama, he also called the new American president "ignorant" last month.
AP