GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Aug 24: A man said to be the driver of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan appeared before a US military commission here on Tuesday at the start of the first military trials arising from the war on terror.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan was the first of four Al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba who will be arraigned at hearings this week. Australian inmate David Hicks is to appear on Wednesday.

The double doors to the commission room opened and Hamdan, a 34-year-old Yemeni, appeared smiling, wearing traditional clothing and a Western jacket, and walked to his seat next to his military lawyer.

Hamdan, clean shaven except for a moustache, and with short hair, did not have the shackles that the 585 Guantanamo detainees are forced to wear. But three soldiers sat behind him. The commission building has been surrounded by intense security.

He joked with his military lawyer, Lieutenant Commander Charlie Swift, before the commission was sworn in and Swift started making challenges to the legality of the hearing.

Swift questioned several parts of the military procedures setting up the commissions, which are being used for the first time in more than 50 years. He also questioned whether Colonel Peter Brown back, who is effectively the presiding judge, would not have an undue influence on the other five members of the panel.

Brown back, who has come out of retirement as a military judge to head the tribunal, insisted that each member of the panel would get an equal vote. None of the four inmates in this week's hearings will face the death penalty, but they could be jailed for life if found guilty. -AFP