US NAVAL BASE AT GUANTANAMO BAY (Cuba) - THE self-proclaimed architect of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants have told US authorities they will plead guilty to terror charges that could bring the death penalty.

In submitting the guilty pleas, the five suspected plotters would abandon all arguments against capital punishment, in a move that seemed designed to dare US authorities to execute them.

'We don't want to waste time,' Sheikh Mohammed, dressed in white and wearing a white turban, with a long gray and black beard, told the judge in English on Monday.

The judge of the military tribunal at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Army Colonel Stephen Henley, said during pre-trial proceedings that the five defendants had indicated they 'wished to enter pleas in what was termed as confessions in this case.'

Col Henley said the defendants, in a letter received by the court several weeks ago, also said they wished to dismiss their tribunal-appointed attorneys, scrap pre-trial motions and plead guilty to the terror charges.

With the judge postponing argument on the case's motions, it is unlikely that pleas would be entered this week, and it is possible that they may not be heard until next year - after the end of President George W. Bush's term.

The dramatic turn of events in the case could further complicate plans by President-elect Barack Obama to close down the Guantanamo prison after he takes office on Jan 20.

Mr Obama's advisers previously have suggested he favours shutting down the controversial tribunals set up by the Bush administration to try some of the inmates.

Sheikh Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and handed over to US agents who held him in secret prisons for more than three years before sending him to Guantanamo Bay.

During his arraignment in June, Sheikh Mohammed said he would welcome martyrdom.

After a recess, Sheikh Mohammed and co-defendants Ramzi al-Shibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi changed course, saying they were postponing their guilty pleas until a future court date, pending mental evaluations of the two other defendants - whose competency to stand trial has been questioned.

The three defendants indicated they still intend to plead guilty, but want to be sure that the other two defendants - Walid Attash and Ali Abdul-Aziz Ali - also will be permitted to do so.

Before Monday's court session ended at 2300 GMT (7am Singapore time), Ramzi al-Shibh offered holiday greetings to 'Osama bin Laden, God protect him' and to 'the entire Islamic world' on Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holy day commemorating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son.

On the eve of Monday's hearing, which was attended by numerous relatives of the 9/11 victims, Alice Hoagland - whose son Mark Bingham died aboard United Airways' flight 93 - said she opposed capital punishment for Sheikh Mohammed, in part to deny him glory in death.

'I can't think of anybody who less deserves martyrdom,' said Ms Hoagland.

Human rights groups were quick to criticise the proceedings, saying the case served as a reminder of how the government employed torture in interrogations of detainees and denied basic legal rights.

'What should have been a major victory in holding the 9/11 defendants accountable for terrible crimes has been tainted by torture and an unfair military commissions process,' said Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch.

The CIA has admitted that Sheikh Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding - a simulated drowning technique widely condemned as torture.

But Ms Hoagland, whose son was one of 2,973 people killed in the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, said she was 'really proud that the commission is proceeding in its slow and thoughtful and deliberate way.' Other relatives of victims said they welcomed the prosecutions of the alleged perpetrators of the worst-ever act of terrorism on US soil.

Hamilton Peterson, whose father and stepmother were on Flight 93, said he hoped Mr Obama would keep the Guantanamo detention camp open and consider expanding it once he confronts 'a new awareness of the realities' of global extremism after he takes office.

More than 800 inmates have passed through Guantanamo's gates since it opened in late 2001, with about 250 detainees still behind bars. -- AFP