LONDON, June 25: Military tribunals possibly lying in wait for four British nationals at the US-run Guantanamo Bay jail in Cuba do not constitute a fair trial under international law, Britain's top legal adviser said on Friday.

"While we must be flexible and be prepared to countenance some limitation of fundamental rights if properly justified and proportionate, there are certain principles on which there can be no compromise," Lord Peter Goldsmith told the International Criminal Law Association in London.

"Fair trial is one of those - which is the reason we in the UK have been unable to accept that the US military tribunals proposed for those detained at Guantanamo Bay offer sufficient guarantees of a fair trial in accordance with international standards," he said.

The text of Goldsmith's speech was distributed to journalists in advance of delivery.

In all, nine Britons were held without charge at Guantanamo Bay, a US naval base at the eastern end of Cuba, having been detained in Afghanistan or Pakistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Five were sent back to Britain in March, where they were freed without charge and subsequently protested their innocence of any terrorism connections, as well as alleging widespread mistreatment of prisoners at the jail.

The remaining four, along with around 650 other inmates, are being detained indefinitely and face possible military trial for alleged connections with Al Qaeda Taliban regime.

Goldsmith's statement, clearly at odds with US policy, were being made just days before Prime Minister Tony Blair sees US President George W. Bush at the NATO summit in Istanbul next week.

Asked in London to explain the state of discreet negotiations with the United States on the remaining four Britons, Goldsmith said there was no change to the position initially set out by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

"I've set the position out now very clearly in that speech," he said.

He declined to pinpoint Britain's concerns over detentions at Guantanamo Bay, saying he thought it wasn't appropriate to set out "details of discussions" underway between London and Washington.-AFP