WASHINGTON - The Pentagon took an important step on Tuesday toward starting the first US military tribunals since World War Two, naming the officers who will decide the fate of the only three Guantanamo prisoners charged by the United States.

The Pentagon formally referred the three cases to a single tribunal comprised of a presiding officer, retired Army Col. Peter Brownback III, and four other officers, but did not set trial dates. Maj. Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman, said officials hoped to have a case tried by the end of the year.

"It's an important step. Having the presiding officer will get the process moving," added Maj. John Smith, a military lawyer and Pentagon spokesman on the commissions.

US officials say the defendants - David Hicks of Australia, Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul of Yemen and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi of Sudan - are al Qaeda members.

The Pentagon's move came a day after the US Supreme Court decided the Guantanamo prisoners could turn to US courts to challenge their confinement. Military lawyers assigned by the Pentagon to represent the three defendants said the ruling could bolster court challenges to the legality of the tribunals, formally called military commissions.

The trials will be held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States holds approximately 595 foreign terrorism suspects, including the three defendants.

Brownback, a veteran of the military justice system, will contact lawyers in the cases to set an initial trial schedule, but it likely will be a month or two before trial dates are set, officials said. It was not decided which defendant would be tried first, they added.

The Pentagon did not identify the other panel members, but said they were three colonels and a lieutenant colonel.

'Basic necessities'

"It seems to me that the government's putting more effort into getting the case referred to trial than they are in getting me the basic necessities to defend my client," said Army Maj. Mark Bridges, assigned to represent al Bahlul.

Bridges said he has spoken to al Bahlul only once because the government has not approved a new interpreter after the first one provided proved to be "not qualified."

Two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America, President George W. Bush authorized military commission trials of non-US citizens caught in the global war on terrorism.

Human rights groups have condemned the trial process established for the commissions, saying the rules favor the prosecution, undercut the defense and do not permit independent judicial review. The Pentagon promised "full and fair" trials.

"All three accused are presumed innocent of any criminal charges unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt at a military commission," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Al Bahlul and al Qosi, both described as close associates and former bodyguards for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, were charged in February with a single count each of conspiracy to commit war crimes. Hicks, a convert to Islam accused of joining al Qaeda, this month was charged with three counts: conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder by an unprivileged belligerent and aiding the enemy.

The Pentagon said al Qosi was a key accountant for bin Laden, al Bahlul was a "key al Qaeda propagandist" who produced videos "glorifying the murder of Americans," and Hicks trained at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon has said it does not plan to seek the death penalty against the three.

The last such US tribunals involved trials of accused war criminals from World War Two.

(Agencies via Xinhua)