WASHINGTON (AP) — As a federal judge considered whether to order the release of several Chinese Muslims into the United States, Beijing today demanded custody of the men once they are released from the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay.

The detainees, known as Uighurs, have been held for almost seven years by the Bush administration, which no longer considers them enemy combatants.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina was hearing arguments this morning into whether the Uighurs should be set free in the United States, perhaps in northern Virginia, where a Chinese Muslim association has agreed to help them find work and housing.

The Bush administration says the judge does not have the authority to release the men into the United States and that they should not be sent back to China where they likely would be tortured.

In Beijing, the government demanded that all Uighurs held at the naval prison in Cuba be repatriated to China.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the Uighurs are suspected of being members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which the United States lists as a terrorist organization.

“China has urged the U.S. to repatriate these Chinese terrorist suspects to China on many occasions. We hope the U.S. will take our position seriously and repatriate these persons to China sooner rather than later,” he said.

The Uighurs have been at Guantanamo Bay since the U.S. military took custody of them in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001. Efforts by the Bush administration to find a home for the detainees has been complicated by fears in many countries of diplomatic reprisals by China.

In 2006, Albania gave refuge to five Uighurs from Guantanamo amid Chinese protests.