A military judge has refused to delay the midsummer trial of Osama bin Laden's driver at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, saying lawyers had sufficient time to review a recent Supreme Court decision.

Navy Capt. Keith Allred wrote in a decision released by the Pentagon Friday that the trial of Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, would open at the remote base on July 21, as scheduled.

Hamdan, a 37-year-old father of two with a fourth-grade education, is accused of providing material support to terror, both by helping the al Qaeda chieftain elude capture and for allegedly having some surface-to-air missiles in his car when allied U.S. forces took Hamdan into custody in November 2001 in Afghanistan.

Conviction could carry life in prison.

Allred had earlier postponed Hamdan's trial to await a Supreme Court ruling on Guantánamo detainees' rights. That ruling gave Hamdan the right to try to sue for his freedom in a federal court in Washington, even as he faces a military commission at Guantánamo.

Defense laywers had sought a nine-week delay.

They argued that the June 12 Supreme Court ruling entitled Hamdan to greater rights, and they needed time to identify and exercise them.

Prosecutors balked in a filing last week, saying delay would inconvenience U.S. government witnesses who have unspecified national security jobs. ''The government intends to bring approximately 22 witnesses, some from outside the United States, to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for a trial that may last up to three weeks,'' the prosecutors wrote.

Moreover, absent postponement, the July 21 date means the Pentagon will assemble U.S. military officers now serving at various posts around the world to serve as Hamdan's jury.

It will be the first full-blown U.S. war crimes tribunal since World War II.

In March 2007, another panel was assembled to hear Australian David Hicks' guilty plea for serving as an al Qaeda foot soldier in Afghanistan. Hicks was sentenced to nine months in prison, most in his native Adelaide, and is now free.

For his part, Allred warned that Hamdan's defense team might still raise constitutional issues based on the Supreme Court ruling that will force him to postpone the trial.

Hamdan's defense team will offer more challenges to the case in a week of pretrial hearings before the judge, starting July 14.

Uncertain is whether the driver himself will attend.

At his April 29 hearing, Hamdan sorrowfully told the judge that he would exercise his right to boycott the trial, in part to protest six-plus years of Guantánamo detention in conditions his attorneys describe as virtual solitary confinement.

The Pentagon defends its showcase detention center, which currently houses 270 captives on a sprawling compound overlooking the Caribbean, as humane.

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