Amnesty International has urged the next US president to close the Gitmo prison, ban tortures and stop backing authoritarian regimes.

"For the USA to have moral authority as a human rights champion, the next administration must close Guantanamo and either try the detainees in ordinary federal courts or release them," the group said Tuesday, according to AFP.

"It must ban evidence obtained through coercion and denounce all forms of torture and other ill-treatment no matter to what end," it said. "It must ditch support for authoritarian leaders."

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In its annual report, the global rights watchdog called on the new US leader to improve the "dismal record" left by US president George W. Bush and his Administration and mend the image of the US worldwide.

"The world needs a USA genuinely engaged and committed to the cause of human rights, at home and abroad," the report said.

Bush and his Administration have been blasted on the international scene for endorsing tortures and harsh methods of interrogation.

The US president and his team claim that America needs to exercise waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique described by many as torture, to perfectly end its 'war on terror'.

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