The newspaper, citing people who briefed on the case, said those charged would include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a former top aide to Al-Qaeda terror group leader Osama bin Laden, who admitted being the main planner of the attacks.

Military prosecutors are considering seeking the death penalty for Mohammed, the Times reported, added that no final decision has been made.

The prosecutors are focusing on the September 11 attacks to bolster the military commission system's credibility before a new president takes office in January 2009, the Times reported.

'The thinking was 9/11 is the heart and soul of the whole thing. The thinking was: go for that,' the unnamed official told the Times.

The official cautioning is that if the charges were announced it would still take months for a trial to begin.

CIA director Michael Hayden for the first time admitted publicly Tuesday that the agency had used 'waterboarding', or simulated drowning, in interrogations of three top Al-Qaeda detainees nearly five years ago.

The technique, which critics say is tantamount to torture, was used on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd Al-Rahim al-Nashiri at a time when further catastrophic attacks on the United States were believed to be imminent, Mr Hayden said. -- AFP