US NAVAL BASE AT GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba: A US military jury has rejected government prosecutors' demands for a stiff sentence for Osama bin Laden's ex-driver, Salim Hamdan, saying he should only spend another five months in prison for supporting terrorism.

The jury delivered a sentence of 66 months, and taking into account the time Hamdan has already served, the decision added an additional five months of prison time - though the Pentagon said it has no immediate plans to release him.

The outcome was a defeat for prosecutors who had portrayed Hamdan as a dangerous "Al-Qaeda warrior" who should be put away for at least 30 years for his work for the terrorist chief bin Laden, who remains at large seven years after the September 11 attacks.

The decision marked the end of a four-year legal battle over whether the US administration could prosecute Hamdan in controversial "war on terror" tribunals that operate under different rules than regular courts.

Shortly before the sentence, Hamdan expressed sorrow and apologised over innocents killed - an apparent reference to the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes by bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network - and appealed for leniency.

"It was a sorry or sad thing to see innocent people killed," Hamdan said in Arabic, translated by an interpreter. "I personally present my apologies to them if anything what I did have caused them pain."

After hearing the decision, Hamdan thanked the jury, then smiled and cried as he embraced his longtime defence lawyer, Charles Swift.

The sentence was a "stunning rebuke" to the government's case and a tribute to the integrity of the six military officers who served as jurors, Swift told reporters afterward.

"What ultimately happened - in spite of the system - was justice," he said.

Swift said the test now would be if the US administration released Hamdan when his sentence was over in December, or invoked its disputed authority to hold him indefinitely without charges as a terror suspect or "unlawful enemy combatant."

Defence lawyers said they hoped the government would respect the findings of the jurors after a two-week trial and release their client.

As Hamdan's prison term ends shortly before a new US president takes office in January 2009, defense lawyers were asked if that would also play a role in his possible release.

Defence counsel Joseph McMillan said: "We hold out hopes that rationality will prevail by virtue of that fact."

If not, the lawyers said they were ready to mount a challenge in federal courts, where they believe they would have a strong case.

A Pentagon spokesman said that after Hamdan finishes his sentence, he would go before a military panel that would decide if he should remain in prison.

"At that time he will still be considered an enemy combatant. But he will be eligible for review by an Administrative Review Board," spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Defence lawyers and rights groups said the trial demonstrated how the tribunal system was flawed, while Pentagon officials insisted the trial vindicated the tribunals and planned to press ahead with trials of other Guantanamo inmates.

The sentencing came after Hamdan was convicted Wednesday of providing support to Al-Qaeda but was cleared of a more serious conspiracy charge, in the first US war crimes trial since World War II.

Hamdan, aged around 40 and with a fourth-grade education, was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 and eventually moved to Guantanamo in 2002.

After the sentence was announced, the judge wished Hamdan luck in the future.

"I hope the day comes when you return to your wife and your daughters and your country to be a father and a provider and a husband in the best sense of all those terms," the judge told Hamdan after the sentence was read.

"Inshallah (God willing)," said Hamdan.

- AFP/yb