Two doctors graphically re-enacted the alleged force-feeding of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay during a protest outside the US Embassy in London.

David Nicholl and Jenny Vaughan yesterday demonstrated what they claim to be the practice of "assisted feeding" performed on detainees on hunger strike at the US military base in Cuba.

The are among doctors from across the UK who have called for the Government to take action over the practices allegedly being used to keep alive Guantanamo detainees, including Omar Deghayes from Saltdean.

Campaigners, backed by The Argus, have called on the British Government to intervene in the case of Mr Deghayes to urge the US authorities to either bring him to trial on criminal charges or release him.

Yesterday, Dr Nicholl was physically restrained while Dr Vaughan inserted a nasogastric tube into his stomach through his nose.

The doctors said they were making their protest because the fundamental right of detainees to refuse treatment was being ignored. They said it was a part of a doctor's responsibilities to respect the informed wish of a detainee on hunger strike not to be treated.

Dr Nicholl was physically restrained while Dr Vaughan inserted a nasogastric tube into his stomach through his nose.

Campaigning with pressure group Reprieve, the doctors said detainees were restrained by the legs, waist, chest, knees and head without an anaesthetic or sedation during the procedure.

The doctors said they believed the practice was also used as a form of torture as well as feeding.

Consultant neurologist Dr Nicholl said: "Recent media reports have failed to demonstrate the true awfulness of force-feeding.

We, as clinicians, feel the British public has a right to know what is involved.

"The Americans describe this as 'tube feeding', which to me means having a sandwich on the Northern Line and not what it actually is, medicalised torture."

Amnesty International estimates that there have been up to 200 detainees at Guantanamo on hunger strike, including at least six British residents.

The British detainees are believed to be striking to demand that they either be charged with a crime or released.

Dr Nicholl delivered a letter to the embassy, signed by 17 other doctors including a GP at Birmingham jail, demanding that independent doctors be allowed to assess the prisoners at Guantanamo and that the practice of force feeding be abandoned.

A letter was also sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair asking him to intervene to help protect the rights of the British residents.

Prison officials have confirmed that force feeding is being used to keep prisoners in their eleventh week of a hunger strike alive.

Amnesty International and lawyers have expressed alarm at the methods understood to have been employed.

Mr Deghayes's lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith said his client was one of the most seriously ill of the hunger striking prisoners.

The US military would not give details on the condition of individual inmates.