WASHINGTON -- A federal judge bowed to the will of the White House and Congress on Thursday and removed the last obstacle to next week's war-crimes tribunal at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba -- the al Qaeda conspiracy terror trial of Osama bin Laden's driver.

After a two-hour hearing, U.S. District Judge James Robertson declined Yemeni native Salim Hamdan's request to delay the trial, to be held after nearly seven years in U.S. custody.

Lawyers for Hamdan, 36, had challenged the war court, claiming that he was entitled to greater constitutional protections than commissions provide in light of a detainee rights ruling at the U.S. Supreme Court last month.

''His claims of unlawfulness are all claims that should first be decided by the military commission and then raised on appeal,'' Robertson said from the bench, accepting a Justice Department argument that the war court must first rule before a federal court reviews it.

Hamdan has fought since 2004 in civilian court, against the on-again, off-again military commissions -- and his lawyers successfully defeated an earlier system in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

CAPTURED IN 2001

The father of two with a fourth-grade education who made $200 a month as bin Laden's driver was seized by U.S. allied troops in Afghanistan in November 2001.

He is charged with conspiracy and with providing material support to al Qaeda terrorists, crimes punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Prosecutors claim he was a key insider who helped protect bin Laden before, during and after a series of spectacular al Qaeda attacks on Western targets

''It is the first contested war-crimes trial since World War II,'' said the Pentagon's chief prosecutor, Army Col. Laurence Morris.

Twenty enemy combatants among the 265 foreign detainees at Guantánamo Bay now await their own military commission trials, seven with execution as the ultimate penalty, and Morris said he would propose additional prosecutions later this summer.

Morris was speaking during a recess in Hamdan's pretrial hearings, where Hamdan's judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, is deciding what evidence and charges will go forward at next week's trial.

Saturday, the military brings in 13 U.S. military officers, mostly colonels, from around the world to sit in judgement as jurors called commissioners.

A clearly disappointed defense team said it would be ready to start with jury selection on Monday, and expected Hamdan to attend despite an earlier threat to boycott. Lawyers have long described the Yemeni captive as an innocent, who worked for the al Qaeda godfather for an income, not ideology.

''I think that the evidence will show that he's a salaried employee of Mr. bin Laden, not a member of al Qaeda, not an employee of al Qaeda,'' said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, Hamdan's Pentagon-appointed defense counsel.

BLOW TO THE DEFENSE

Thirteen-hundred miles north, in a Washington, D.C., courtroom, Robertson was giving Morris' prosecution team the go-ahead to try Hamdan.

Hamdan's attorneys had wanted Robertson to postpone the military commission trial while a habeas corpus hearing examined Hamdan's legal status.

''The time to hear the challenge is now, not to wait until after the trial,'' said Hamdan's D.C.-based attorney, Georgetown University Law Center Professor Neal Katyal, adding that "a temporary pause is appropriate.''

Katyal said he would examine Robertson's ruling, once issued in writing on Friday, to decide whether to appeal. Either way, he would not receive the delay he sought.

In 2004, Robertson had accepted Hamdan's challenge to the military commissions established by the Bush administration. Since then, though, Congress has explicitly authorized the commissions that require at least five military officers on his jury. Robertson concluded that put the commissions on stronger footing.

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

Robertson, a former U.S. Navy officer appointed to the bench in 1994 by then-President Bill Clinton, added that "the court should be wary of disturbing judgment'' of the executive and legislative branches.

The judge stressed his decision will not bind other judges facing future habeas corpus petitions from Guantánamo Bay detainees, though it could prove influential.

Doyle of the McClatchy Washington Bureau reported from Washington, D.C., while Miami Herald staff writer Rosenberg reported from Guantánamo Bay.

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