SYDNEY, 20 July 2003 — Australia yesterday ruled out asking the United States to extradite two Australian citizens being held by the US military in Cuba on suspicion of being terrorists.

Prime Minister John Howard said US authorities had agreed to delay legal action against the two Australians until talks on their fate were held with Canberra officials next week.

But Howard rejected calls for his government to push for the men to stand trial in their homeland, where they would not face the death penalty.

He said the United States had captured the suspects and was entitled to prosecute them.

“You have got to remember that they (US authorities) are dealing with people they believe were intent on doing evil things to their people and other people and they have the right to be heard on it as well and they have a right to be involved in the procedures,” he told reporters in South Korea. “We have to keep a sense of balance and perspective.”

Adelaide man David Hicks, 27, was captured fighting for the Taleban in Afghanistan in November 2001 and Sydney man Mamdouh Habib, 46, was arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of training with Al-Qaeda.

Both are being held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba along with more than 600 other “illegal combatants” captured during the war against the Taleban regime and Al-Qaeda. Neither have been charged with any crime, but US officials said this month that Hicks would be among the first six detainees to face a military tribunal and could face execution.

Washington’s insistence on trying the prisoners before a military tribunal and refusal to grant access to lawyers has drawn sharp criticism from civil liberties groups worldwide.

Howard said Australia wanted the pair to have legal representation but would not speculate on whether they could have Australian lawyers.

He said his government would push for the presumption of innocence to apply and he believed Australian opposition to the death penalty would be taken into account.

Delegates at the Uniting Church of Australia national assembly yesterday labeled the detention of the two without legal charge as “deplorable” ad called for their repatriation.

“We protest in the strongest possible terms against the potential use of the death penalty as a punishment, should the US proceed to trial of the two Australians,” a church spokesman said.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said it was “unlikely in the extreme” that Hicks would be sentenced to death if found guilty.

Senior officials from the attorney-general’s department are on their way to Washington for talks about the Australian detainees.