Senior U.S. officials said on Tuesday they would be unable to meet deadlines set by Canberra for the trial of Australia's sole Guantanamo Bay inmate, as Prime Minister John Howard stepped up pressure over the case.
In an acknowledgement that David Hicks's case is straining relations with one of Washington's closest allies and placing election-year pressure on Howard's conservative government, two U.S. officials appeared by video link to explain the hold-ups.
"We are very anxious to move forward," John Bellinger, legal adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told Australian journalists.
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