WASHINGTON, Jan 8: US President George Bush's administration said on Wednesday it would ask the Supreme Court to rule whether it can detain Americans from the "war on terror" without charge for an unlimited time.

The Bush administration wants the court to review a lower court decision to free Jose Padilla, who has been detained at a US military prison for 18 months, on suspicion of planning a radioactive "dirty bomb" attack.

Mr Padilla, 33, a US citizen also known as Abdullah al Mujahir, is considered an "enemy combatant" by the government. He has never been formally charged and has been denied access to legal counsel.

Solicitor General Theodore Olson said the government's appeal would be filed "on or by Jan 20", in a document submitted to the high court. Jose Padilla was arrested in Chicago in May 2002, as he stepped off a plane from Pakistan. He is being kept in secret at a naval brig in South Carolina.

Mr Olson's notice to the court came in a filing asking the Supreme Court to consider the separate case of Yaser Esam Hamdi. Mr Hamdi was born in Louisiana and captured by US troops in Afghanistan shortly after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.

The US Defence Department has already allowed Yaser Hamdi to see a lawyer, a right that has been granted sparingly to those held in military custody.

Detentions without charges after Sept 11 have been harshly criticized in the United States and abroad. The Pentagon insists that under the rules of war, "enemy combatants" may be detained until the end of hostilities. -AFP