WASHINGTON - THE Pentagon has set a Jan 14 arraignment for a Saudi man held at the Guantanamo Bay prison accused of helping to plan and carry out the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, US media said on Tuesday.

The Miami Herald reported that the Guantanamo 'war on terror' court next month will hear the case of Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, 43, one of six detainees facing military execution if convicted.

Al-Nashiri, born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, allegedly conspired to help two Islamic extremists who steered an explosives-laden barge alongside the Cole, which was docked at the time in the port of Aden, Yemen, in October 2000. The attackers then detonated themselves and their load, killing 17 American sailors.

Al-Nashiri, arrested in 2002, was held incommunicado by the CIA for almost four years before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006. In February, CIA director general Michael Hayden confirmed that US interrogators had secretly waterboarded al-Nashiri and two other detainees while he was being held in the spy agency's custody.

Among those held at the prison, which currently has about 250 inmates, are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged operational mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, and other alleged senior leaders of Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups.

Since its opening in early 2002, nearly 800 detainees from around the Muslim world and Europe have done time in Guantanamo.

President-elect Barack Obama said during his run for the White House that he would close down the military trials, but the Pentagon has pushed ahead with them - even as Defence Secretary Robert Gates last week ordered aides to draft plans for closing Guantanamo after the new administration takes charge.

On Friday, when the Pentagon disclosed the charges against al-Nashiri, defense lawyers slammed his prosecution as the 'last gasp' of the Bush administration, while rights groups expressed outrage.

'What we are seeing is another 11th hour stunt from the (George W.) Bush administration to tie the hands of the incoming president,' said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, in a statement.

'Just this week, the Defence Department announced it is making plans to shut down Guantanamo and end these sham military commissions.

'While President-elect Obama is planning to end eight years of shameful policies that allowed torture and violations of domestic and international law, the Bush administration is desperately trying to extend it,' Mr Romero said. -- AFP