Up to 24 children may have been held up at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and many of them face the same conditions and interrogations as adult inmates, the Time magazine reported Sunday.

The number of prisoners under 18 could have been higher as date-of-birth data are imprecise, Time said.

"Many of these youths were subject to the same conditions and interrogations as the adults," it said.

"Some kids -- including three Afghans thought to be 10, 12 and 13 when they arrived -- were segregated from adults, allowed to play sports and given lessons," it said.

"But in many ways, they were viewed as no different from their grownup fellow inmates," the magazine said.

Some children inmates at the prison have claimed through their lawyers that they have been beaten or abused, it said.

International laws, including the Geneva Conventions, require that child prisoners be separated from adults and given education. The US federal law has similar requirements.

Some 460 prisoners are held at Guantanamo, which opened after the US-led war in Afghanistan in 2001.

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2006)