A U.S. District Court in Washington ruled Thursday that the first war crimes trial in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks can go ahead as planned next week at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Yemeni national Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who has admitted being Osama bin Laden’s driver at one time, faces charges of providing material support to terrorism and his trial under the controversial military commissions process is scheduled to start Monday.

His lawyers had asked the district court in the U.S. capital to order a delay while Hamdan mounted a challenge to his continuing detention at Guantanamo Bay.

They said successive decisions by higher courts against the military commissions and their legality meant their client faced the risk of being found guilty by a trials process that would eventually be found unconstitutional.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court said detainees at the military facility could use civilian courts to challenge their detention if they hadn’t been charged.

The latest ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson said Hamdan’s military commission was taking place under conditions that were carefully established by courts and the political process.

Congress, courts approved process: judge

"Hamdan is to face a military commission designed by Congress based on guidelines handed down by the Supreme Court," Robertson said.

He said Hamdan can raise any procedural challenges during trial and, if convicted, he can ask military and civilian appeals courts to settle constitutional questions.

Robertson's decision came just days after a military judge at Guantanamo Bay also denied Hamdan's request for a postponement.

His lawyers said they have not decided whether to appeal to a higher court.

Hamdan,38, has denied involvement in planning or carrying out terror attacks.

While Robertson stressed that his ruling only affects Hamdan, judges overseeing hundreds of other detainee cases have said they were watching to see how he would handle the case.

If it goes ahead as planned next week, Hamdan will be the first Guantanamo detainee to face a military commission since the controversial facility was set up in 2002.

Such tribunals have not been used since just after the Second World War, and that process was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006, forcing the administration of George W. Bush to push an updated version of the tribunals through the U.S. Congress.

Of the estimated 270 men still held at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. plans to try about 80 of them, including Canada’s Omar Khadr and 14 so-called 'high value' detainees who are accused of being at the top echelons of al-Qaeda or involvement in planning the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S.

Hamdan's lawyers said he intends to call some of those high value detainees as witnesses in his defence, which military prosecutors said would have grave implications for national security.

Human rights activists claim the U.S. government doesn't want the top detainees to testify at trials because they may expose details about torture or illegal methods of getting information from prisoners.

With files from the Associated Press