Gordon said three European news organizations who had asked to visit the base at least two months ago would be allowed to tour the detention center next week.

Los Angeles Times reporter Carol Williams said she had also secured permission to visit the base after the hearings were canceled and that she and the other reporters on the base had offered to act as a pool for other media who wanted to visit the base but were denied permission.

Williams, interviewed at home in Miami, also questioned why the military couldn't accommodate more media, noting that in the past dozens had been on the base at a time.

"The Pentagon didn't want any journalists covering the operations there," she said.

Access to Guantanamo is severely restricted, with visitors required to arrive either on military planes or government-approved charters that have limited space and schedules.

"A simple one-hour meeting with a client usually requires a four-day round trip by counsel," Fleener wrote in his motion.

Because of the security and travel restrictions, it is "logistically impossible" to provide an adequate defense, said Fleener.

Fleener said other defense lawyers are expected to file similar motions asking that the trials be moved from Guantanamo.

The Office of Military Commissions did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Al-Bahlul, who has refused to cooperate with Fleener in his defense, is one of 10 Guantanamo Bay detainees charged with crimes and facing military tribunals. The US holds about 460 men at the prison on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The US Supreme Court is expected to rule in June whether President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering the military tribunals - the first by the United States since the World War II era.

Earlier, civilian lawyers who have filed legal petitions challenging the detention of Guantanamo Bay prisoners complained to a judge in Washington that their meetings with clients had been canceled without warning because of the investigation into the suicides.

Yiota Souras, an attorney for two men from Yemen, said she met with one of her clients on Tuesday but was told she could not meet with him again Wednesday, the last day of her visit. "It's incredibly difficult to get here and we had an interrupted visit," she said in a phone interview from Guantanamo.