The administration of Barack Obama, the US president, has dropped the term "enemy combatant" as its basis for holding terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, while it works to close the facility, the US justice department has said.

Court papers were filed by the department on Friday, outlining its break from the detention standards of the administration of George Bush, the former US president.

The justice department said prisoners would now only be detained if their support for al-Qaeda or the Taliban was "substantial".

Eric Holder, the US attorney general, said in a statement on Friday: "As we work towards developing a new policy to govern detainees, it is essential that we operate in a manner that strengthens our national security, is consistent with our values, and is governed by law."

"The change we've made today meets each of those standards and will make our nation stronger."

Congressional power

Unlike the US administration under Bush, who greatly sought to expand presidential powers during his term, the new detention policy does not rely on the president's powers as military commander in chief to hold terrorism suspects at Guantanamo.

Instead, the justice department said: "It draws on the international laws of war to inform the statutory authority conferred by Congress.

"It provides that individuals who supported al-Qaeda or the Taliban are detainable only if the support was substantial.

"And it does not employ the phrase "enemy combatant"."

The justice department said it had told the court that the Obama administration was reviewing its entire detention policy as part of its plan to close the prison at the US naval base in Cuba, and further refinements of the policies were possible.