Wednesday, June 14, 2006 12:23 PM

TIRANA, Albania-Lawyers for five Chinese Muslims released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay have asked Albania to suspend asylum procedures, saying their clients are hoping to find another host country where it would be easier for them to integrate, an official said Wednesday.

Lawyers said the five Muslim, members of China's Uighur ethnic minority, are afraid to venture out of a refugee shelter in Tirana's suburbs, and worry they would not be able to earn a living in one of Europe's poorest countries.

"They believe the Uighurs have no future here; they can't earn a living because there is no Uighur community" that could help them to integrate, said Argita Totozani, head of the ministry's refugee department.

In handling the asylum case, the ministry has had difficulty finding an interpreter and setting a hearing, she said.

"I have been informally asked through an e-mail from the U.S. lawyers of the five Uighurs to slow down or suspend the asylum procedure until they find another country to take them," she said.

The Foreign Ministry denied reports that they may remove the Uighurs from the camp. The ministry said it was still processing their request for asylum.

"The five Uighurs are welcome in Albania and it (government) has clarified its stand with the government of the People's Republic of China," the ministry said in a statement.

Prime Minister Sali Berisha told a visiting Chinese delegation last week that his country had accepted the five Muslims for humanitarian reasons after they were released from Guantanamo last month.

U.S. forces detained the five Uighurs during the invasion of Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

U.S. authorities say they pose no terrorist threat to the U.S. but might face persecution if returned to China.

China has demanded the five be returned, saying they are suspected of having links to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which it accuses of waging a violent separatist campaign in China's northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang, and of being close to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.

Albania has said U.S. officials assured them the men had no terror links, and urged China to present evidence for its suspicions.

Journalists have not been allowed access to the five refugees, who are being housed at a refugee center in the suburbs of Tirana.

China and Albania have been allies since 1961, when the tiny Balkan country broke ties with the Soviet Union.