WASHINGTON -- A federal judge gave a green light Thursday to a military commission trial set to begin Monday at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for Osama bin Laden's former driver.

After a two-hour hearing, U.S. District Judge James Robertson declined Yemeni Salim Hamdan's request to delay the trial. Hamdan had challenged the trial, claiming that he was being treated unconstitutionally.

''His claims of unlawfulness are all claims that should first be decided by the military commission and then raised on appeal,'' Robertson declared from the bench.

Robertson noted that unlike in 2004, when he agreed with Hamdan to postpone his trial, Congress has explicitly authorized the five-member military commissions that will hear the case.

''Hamdan is to face a military commission that was designed by Congress, acting according to guidelines set by the Supreme Court,'' Robertson noted.

A member of Hamdan's defense tearm, Neal Katyal, a Georgetown University Law Center professor, said he would study the judge's written ruling to decide whether to appeal it. He contends that the military commission trials remain seriously flawed.

''A temporary pause is appropriate,'' Katyal argued, adding, ``The fastest and best and most efficient way for Mr. Hamdan is to get this right the first time.''

Hamdan's trial will be the first of its kind and will come about a month after the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution permits Guantánamo Bay detainees to challenge their detention through habeas corpus petitions. Robertson's ruling stressed that those challenges could take place without interfering with Monday's trial.

U.S. allied troops seized Hamdan, 37, in Afghanistan in November 2001 and his war court judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, declared him to be an ''unlawful enemy combatant.'' Prosecutors have charged him with conspiracy and with providing material support to al Qaeda, for serving as bin Laden's $200-a-month driver at the time of the 1998 U.S. embassies suicide bombings in East Africa and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Hamdan acknowledges serving as bin Laden's driver but denies terrorism involvement. Hamdan further says that military commissions will rely on evidence obtained through coercion, including by depriving him of sleep on an hourly basis for nearly two months.

At the Justice Department, spokesman Erik Ablin declared the government ''pleased'' with Robertson's decision.

''The government looks forward to presenting its case against Mr. Hamdan to the commission,'' he said in a swift statement. ``We note that, under the procedures established by Congress in the Military Commissions Act, Mr. Hamdan will receive greater procedural protections than those ever before provided to defendants in military-commission trials.''

The federal judge ruled during a lunch recess at the war court. Throughout the morning the driver's defense team argued a series of constitutional challenges before the military commissions judge, Allred.

In one spirited exchange, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, lead defense attorney, argued that Hamdan's charges should be dismissed on grounds he was denied the constitutional right to a speedy trial. The driver has been charged, on and off, since 2004.

His trial was delayed as his attorneys challenged the constitutionality of an earlier format to the U.S. Supreme Court.

''Mr. Hamdan has been incarcerated for seven years, oppressive incarceration, You Honor,'' Mizer said, noting that the Yemeni had spoken to his wife and daughters twice or three times by telephone since he was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001. ``I don't know that we would do that to any defendant in the United States.''

That was precisely the point, countered Justice Department attorney John Murphy, a prosecutor on loan to the Pentagon for the war crimes trial.

Under the recent Boumediene decision, Murphy said, Hamdan does not have the same rights as an accused criminal on U.S. soil but can challenge his detention through a habeas corpus petition.

''Mr. Hamdan is not any defendant,'' Murphy said. ``He is an alien unlawful enemy combatant. Under the law of war, he can be held for the duration of hostilities.''

Moreover, were Hamdan to be acquitted at trial, the United States still asserts the authority to hold him indefinitely -- or until the end of the global war on terror.

The Pentagon will mobilize U.S. officers from assignments around the world this weekend to remote Guantánamo to serve as a jury pool for Hamdan's trial, with questioning of potential jurors expected to start on Monday.

Miami Herald staff writer Carol Rosenberg contributed to this report from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

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