'MEDIA MAN'

Earlier audio-visual flaws prevented journalists and rights observers from hearing the opening proceedings in the viewers' gallery behind a soundproof double-glass curtain.

The problems also frustrated Brownback, who moved about the courtroom in search of a working microphone and complained, "I don't know what's wrong with the audio in this place."

Bahlul was unruffled, telling the court, "I don't care that you interrupt the media from listening. Trust me, I am a media man myself, I know the effect of the media, but I really don't care."

Brownback allowed Bahlul to act as his own attorney for now, but kept Frakt on standby basis. Frakt said Bahlul's self-representation creates big problems for the military - such as whether Bahlul can see classified evidence against him or how he can review any case material, given the absence of computers in the prison.

Brownback set Bahlul's next hearing for June 26-27.

At a later hearing in another courtroom, Afghan prisoner Mohammed Jawad relaxed his earlier rejection of a defence attorney and agreed to be represented, but only to contest the legitimacy of the Guantanamo court.

Jawad, who has said he was 16 when captured in Afghanistan in December 2002, is accused of throwing a grenade into a U.S. military jeep at a bazaar in Kabul and injuring two American soldiers and their interpreter.

"Mr. Jawad is an innocent man. He has been held for five years. He was a homeless boy wrongfully accused and beaten into confession by the Afghanistan police," said Frakt, who was also assigned to represent Jawad.

The United States has held foreign captives at Guantanamo since January 2002, in a detention and interrogation operation widely criticized as a violation of human rights.

Charges are pending against 14 prisoners in the special court set up to try captives the United States considers to be unlawful enemy combatants who do not merit trial in traditional civilian and military courts.