Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has called for the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay to be immediately closed and its inmates moved to the United States.

Powell said the controversial prison in Cuba had become a "major problem" for the United States' image abroad and done more harm than good.

"Guantanamo has become a major, major problem... in the way the world perceives America and if it were up to me I would close Guantanamo not tomorrow but this afternoon...," Powell told NBC's Meet The Press on Sunday.

"I would get rid of Guantanamo and the military commission system and use established procedures in federal law," Powell said, saying some leaders around the world were using Guantanamo to hide their own misdeeds.

The United States is holding about 380 foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo.

Rights groups and foreign governments have called for the prison to be closed, saying holding prisoners there for years without trial violated legal standards.

But Washington says the prison is legal and necessary to hold dangerous individuals.

Powell is one of the most senior former members of the Bush administration to call for the prison camp to be disbanded.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said Congress and the Bush administration should work together to allow imprisonment of some of the more dangerous detainees elsewhere so the military camp at the U.S. navy base in Cuba can be closed.

Powell said the U.S. should do away with the military commission system in favor of procedures already established in federal law or the manual for courts-martial.