(See Correction & Amplification below .)

WASHINGTON -- Obama administration officials said they will miss a deadline to make recommendations on detainee policy -- a key part of the plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by January -- and are expected to seek an extension.

A White House official downplayed the missed deadline and said the January closure is still on track. Instead of a final report, the detention policy task force set up by President Barack Obama is expected to present him with an interim report on its work on Tuesday, administration officials said.

A separate task force reviewing individual cases of detainees, which affects the wider detainee policy review, expects to complete its review by October, an official said. The scope of the detention policy review goes beyond Guantanamo, dealing with how the U.S. handles future prisoners suspected of terrorism, and what to do with detainees who may require indefinite imprisonment without trials.

Officials pointed to what they described as tangible signs of their progress on Guantanamo, saying 11 detainees have been resettled or repatriated, one has been moved to New York for criminal trial, and another detained in the U.S. as an "enemy combatant" has pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges. Separately, Congress is considering legislation that would rewrite rules for new military commissions to try some of the detainees.

Interviews with officials in the administration and Congress portray the president's Guantanamo plans as troubled by a confluence of political miscalculations, internal dissension and the sheer complexities of an issue that burdened the previous administration for years.

Mr. Obama in January issued an executive order to close Guantanamo, which he called a stain on the U.S.'s global reputation, within a year, in line with a pledge he made on the campaign trail. He also ordered several task forces to be set up to review aspects of national security policy, including detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates set up task forces that included representatives of multiple government agencies. Matt Olsen, a career official in the Justice Department's national security division, leads the team reviewing the cases of 229 detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay. Brad Wiegmann, a Justice national security lawyer, and Army Col. Mark Martins, a military judge, are heading the broader detention-policy review.

The task force headed by Mr. Olsen has completed its work on just over half the cases, administration officials said. That pace is slower than planned, in part explaining the delay in the work by a related task force appointed to review broader detention policy.

And while polls in January indicated that the public agreed with Mr. Obama's plan to close Guantanamo, polls six months later suggested that the president has lost public support for the plan, in part due to concerns about the potential danger posed by the prisoners. Inside the administration, multiple camps are pointing fingers over the shifting public sentiment and over the reasons why closing the prison has become more difficult than originally envisioned.

Critics of the closure plans went virtually unchallenged for months, as they portrayed the president as attempting to bring "terrorists to your backyard." In May, White House officials deployed Mr. Obama to lay out his national security vision in a speech at the National Archives—an appearance that was followed by a televised rejoinder by former Vice President Dick Cheney minutes later.

"Finally, at least we're now part of the conversation," one frustrated administration official said on the day of the president's speech.

Some Democratic officials now express concern that the Guantanamo-closure plan could become to the Obama administration what the bungled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays serving in the military was to the Clinton administration.

Some administration officials close to the situation said White House political officials were concerned that engaging with critics on Guantanamo would hurt political efforts on health care and energy, the president's top legislative priorities. Others lay the blame on Justice Department officials leading the reviews, saying they didn't make enough room for political considerations in the process.

Other problems appear rooted in the White House's handling of the matter. Some officials familiar with the workings of the White House effort said it has been chaotic and disorganized. From the beginning, the president divided the work of closing Guantanamo between the National Security Council and the White House counsel's office, with some key lawyers serving both National Security Adviser James Jones and White House Counselor Gregory B. Craig.

But Senate aides supportive of the closure said they never heard from the NSC. Instead, all of their contact with the administration came through the counsel's office and the Justice Department.

A Senate Republican aide said the Senate Armed Services Committee pressed the administration for weeks to provide information on the prisoners and the status of the review. Each time, Justice Department and White House counsel officials said they couldn't provide the information sought, the aide said. The aide said it wasn't because the administration was being secretive, but rather because dissension within the administration had prevented many of the decisions from being made.

Finally, the day before the revised military-commissions legislation was to be introduced earlier this month, the administration sent the Senate a memo on its recommendations. Because the memo arrived at 10 p.m., its conclusions weren't included in the initial legislation.

An administration official said the White House was pleased with the legislation, which is moving forward on Capitol Hill with bipartisan support.

Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com and Jonathan Weisman at jonathan.weisman@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications

In May, former Vice President Dick Cheney issued a televised rejoinder to a national security speech given by President Barack Obama. A previous version of this story inadvertently dropped Mr. Cheney's surname.

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