US Defense Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld has unveiled procedures for trials of suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda members by military commissions.
The commissions will consist of three to seven military officers and will be headed by a military judge. The tribunals will be empowered to hand down death sentences on the basis of secret evidence.
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Prisoners at the US camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba
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The procedures governing them make it more difficult to impose the death penalty by requiring a unanimous vote by the commission, rather than only a two-thirds vote as originally proposed.
A two-thirds vote is required for convictions and all lesser sentences. Certain basic rights are reaffirmed in the rules - the presumption of innocence, proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the right to counsel, the right not to testify or incriminate oneself, or to be tried twice for the same crime.
Mr Rumsfeld dismissed criticism that secrecy provisions, less demanding rules of evidence and no right of appeal to an independent body could lead to "kangaroo" verdicts. "That characterisation is so off the mark that I'm shocked," he said.
"We believe that most people will find that, taken together, they're fair and balanced and that justice will be served in their application," he said.
Mr Rumsfed did not say how soon detainees might be tried by military commissions. Pentagon officials said the more than 550 people detained by the US military at bases in Cuba and in Afghanistan could be held without charges for the duration of the war on terrorism.
AFP