The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents some of the Guantanamo detainees, said it sent a letter to Navy Secretary Gordon England urging that a delegation of civilian lawyers be allowed to give detainees legal advice on their rights.

The move comes amid a pledge by the Pentagon to notify the 594 detainees at Guantanamo of their right to file habeas corpus petitions in US courts contesting their detention.

The right was affirmed in recent Supreme Court rulings that rejected the government's argument that the US naval base in Cuba was beyond the reach of US courts.

The Pentagon has since moved to set up a process to review the status of the Guantanamo detainees as illegal enemy combatants, and notify them of their right to file habeas corpus petitions with the courts.

England, who is heading the process, said last week that arrangements had not yet been worked out to give detainees access to lawyers for the purpose of filing habeas corpus petitions.

Detainees will not have lawyers to prepare for the status review tribunals, only military officers who will act as their personal representatives.

"There is an obvious conflict of interest where the armed forces provides legal advice to the persons who are its adversaries, and there are ethical problems with having non-lawyers (the 'Personal Representatives') provide that legal advice," Jeffrey Fogel, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in the letter to England.

Fogel accused the Pentagon of attempting to circumvent the Supreme Court's ruling by raising obstacles to legal representation of the detainees.

"The right to file a habeas corpus petition is meaningless without the right to counsel," he said.

WAR.WIRE