US NAVAL BASE AT GUANTANAMO BAY: A Saudi man accused of masterminding the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen's port of Aden in 2000 was formally arraigned Wednesday by a Guantanamo military court.

Dressed in prison clothes, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, 46, appeared before the court for the first time since his arrest in 2002, smiling several times at the judge. It is the first such case to be held since US President Barack Obama reversed course and ordered the controversial military trials to resume.

The charges against Nashiri allege he was head "of the planning and preparation for the attack" on the USS Cole on October 12, 2000, which killed 17 sailors and wounded 40 more.

The assault by an explosives-laden skiff blew a 30-foot by 30-foot (10-m by 10m) hole in the warship.

US military prosecutors also accuse Nashiri of plotting an attempted strike on USS The Sullivans in Aden in January 2000 and of planning an attack on a French civilian oil tanker MV Limburg in the Gulf of Aden in 2002 that left one Bulgarian crew member dead and caused an oil spill of 90,000 barrels.

Nashiri, whose hair was short and who had a two-day-old stubble, was appearing at a newly-built court house at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

His trial is not due to begin for several months, and his lawyers refused to say how he would plead.