Australia to press Cheney on Guantanamo trial for Hicks

CANBERRA, Feb 19 (Reuters) Australia will press US Vice President Dick Cheney this week to ensure a speedy trial for Australia's Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks so he can be brought home by the year's end, said Prime Minister John Howard.

With his government trailing in the polls and facing a tough election around October or November, Howard said he would use Cheney's visit to Australia on Thursday to push for Hicks to be brought before a military trial ''without any further delay''. ''Now we are very unhappy that it has taken this long,'' Howard told Australian television today, blaming much of the delay on the processes within the US Defense Department.

If convicted, Australia and the United States have agreed Hicks can return to Australia to serve out any prison sentence.

Cheney will visit close US ally Australia for two full days during which he will him hold talks with Howard about U.S.

plans to send an extra 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq.

Australia has about 1,450 personnel in and around Iraq, with a battle group of only 520 troops in Iraqi's south. Howard has ruled out sending more combat troops to Iraq, but said more trainers may be sent to help build up the Iraqi security forces.

Hicks, 31, has been in US custody for five years and faces charges of providing support for terrorism, but opinion polls show Australians are increasingly unhappy about his treatment and the Australian government's refusal to demand his release.

Australia's Greens leader Bob Brown said Howard wanted Hicks returned to Australia by Christmas to ensure the issue was off the agenda by the time of the Australian elections, due any time from August but most likely to be called for October or November.

''More plainly than ever, Hicks has become Howard's political captive,'' Brown said in a statement. ''Hicks will come home before Christmas so that Howard can get home before Christmas.'' Howard's tougher stand against Hicks came as conservative government lawmakers complained the Hicks case was becoming a concern with voters, and with a poll showing 56 percent of people were opposed to the government handling of his case.

Hicks was arrested in Afghanistan in late 2001 and accused of fighting for al Qaeda, blamed for the September 11, 2001 airliner attacks on the United States.

Hicks is among around 395 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters being held at Guantanamo Bay, and will be one of the first to face a Military Commission trial.

US officials in early February said Hick's trial might not start until July, meaning the trial could overlap with Howard's campaign to win a fifth straight election to extend his 11 years in office.

REUTERS SP DS1110