Eleven Kuwaitis in all have been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2001

Reports identify them as Adel al-Zamel, Mohammad al-Daihani, Abdullah al-Ajmi, Saad al-Azmi and Abdulaziz al-Shimmari.

Kuwaiti officials said they would be tried by a Kuwaiti court.

Khaled al-Odah, Chairman of the Families of Kuwaiti Detainees at Guantanamo, said two of the men were in very bad health.

Interior ministry sources said the detainees would be allowed to meet their families before being taken into Kuwaiti custody, but Mr Odah said relatives were yet to get permission to meet the detainees.

One Kuwaiti, Nasser al-Mutairi, was freed in January and acquitted by a Kuwaiti court of undermining national security, weapons possession, joining al-Qaeda and fighting against a friendly nation - the United States.

But earlier this week, an appeal court in Kuwait overturned the verdict and sentenced him to five years in prison.