The United States plans to build a vast, new detention camp at its main military base in Afghanistan.

A Defence Department spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wright says the detention facilty at Bagram airfield will be 16 hectares.

The makeshift jail at Bagram holds alleged extremist militants rounded up in the war on terror launched after the events of September 11th.

US officials say the jail cannot handle all the Afghans detained by US forces or new prisoners taken in fighting against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

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