WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama said yesterday he is restarting US military tribunals for a small number of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo though with several new legal protections for defendants.

Obama said in a statement that his approach is “the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values.”

The decision puts Obama in the position of reviving a Bush-era trial system he once assailed as deeply flawed — and opposed as a senator. But he is immediately changing the rules that govern the trials in ways consistent with his past criticism of the Bush system. Obama also is asking Congress to change the law.

The move is certain to face criticism from liberal groups, already stung by his decision on Wednesday to try to block the court-ordered release of photos showing US troops abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. That decision marked a reversal of his earlier stand on making the photos public.

“It’s disappointing that Obama is seeking to revive rather than end this failed experiment,” said Jonathan Hafetz, a national security attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. “There’s no detainee at Guantanamo who cannot be tried and shouldn’t be tried in the regular federal courts system. Even with the proposed modifications, this will not cure the commissions or provide them with legitimacy. This is perpetuating the Bush administration’s misguided detention policy.”

Thirteen detainees — including five charged with helping orchestrate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — are already in the tribunal system.

The president said that immediate rule changes governing the trials, carried out by executive authority, will begin to bring them “in line with the rule of law,” most significantly by altering some rules of allowable evidence.

Obama also is asking Congress to change the 2006 law creating the current, on-hold tribunal system to enact more sweeping reforms.

“This is the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values,” Obama said in a statement announcing his decision.

Pentagon lawyers were filing a continuance request with the military commissions judge. It appeared the administration was asking for a four-month delay in trials to give it time to enact at least the initial rule changes, but that time frame has been in flux over recent days and was not immediately clear. Obama did not specify a time frame in his statement.

The tribunal system was set up after the military began sweeping detainees off the battlefields of Afghanistan in late 2001.