A US appeals court has refused an American-born Taleban prisoner captured in Afghanistan permission to see lawyers in a case that could have implications for other such detainees.

Bush: Under fire from rights groups for the treatment of US Taleban prisoners

Yaser Esam Hamdi, 21, was detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba until US authorities discovered he was born in the state of Louisiana to Saudi parents and had him transferred to US soil.

He is currently being held in a jail in a US naval base in Norfolk, Virginia.

The court ruled that in a time of war the US attorney general has the right to hold an enemy combatant in military detention incommunicado.

Reversal

The decision reversed an earlier ruling by a district court in the state that had permitted Mr Hamdi to meet public defender Frank Dunham.

The news comes as the British alleged shoe-bomber Richard Reid lost a legal battle to have the term "al-Qaeda" removed from the indictment against him.

Mr Reid, whom US authorities accuse of attempting to blow up a commercial flight using bombs hidden in his shoes, had argued that the wording was inaccurate, however the presiding judge said he was satisfied with the reference being used.

Legal arguments

Mr Hamdi's lawyers had argued that, as an American, he should be given all the rights as granted to him by the US constitution, which would include access to a lawyer and the right to a trial by jury.

Padilla, another US born terror suspect is alleged to have attempted to build a radiation bomb

But presiding Judge J Harvie Wilkinson disagreed, saying that in their previous decision the district court had not considered the implications of Mr Hamdi's case, such as the gathering of intelligence.

However in giving his decision the judge said that such decisions could still be open to judicial review, otherwise, he said, the US Government could hold indefinitely anyone it claimed was an enemy fighter.

Human rights groups in the US have contended that the rights of several US-born terror suspects, such as Mr Hamdi, John Walker Lindh and alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla, accused of trying to mount a radiation attack in the US, are being violated.

BBC correspondent Alex Van Wel said that the judge appeared to address this by saying that in a time of war the US president had the right to determine who could be classified as an enemy combatant.