At a hearing Thursday for the 21-year-old Khadr, Judge Col. Patrick Parrish said the date could be changed for legal reasons if necessary.

But the decision to set a trial date represented a step forward in the military prosecution of Khadr, who faces up to life in prison if convicted on charges of killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002.

Khadr was 15 years old at the time.

The military tribunal proceedings in Guantanamo Bay have been overshadowed by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that detainees at the U.S.-run prison camp have the constitutional right to challenge their detention in American civilian courts.

Canada "should have been saying something once the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those detainees, including Omar Khadr who have spent six years in that hellish place, were held illegally," said Dennis Edney, an Edmonton lawyer on Khadr's defence team.

"One would have thought the military commission would be respectful to its own Supreme Court that said the process in Guantanamo was illegal."

"That's disappointing," Edney said about the decision to proceed to trial, pointing out there's no appeal in military court.

"I was not surprised, but I was hoping this judge would have followed the law and would have allowed Omar Khadr to challenge his rights within the federal court system," Edney said.

"This is a continuation of the violation of this young man. It's immoral. It doesn't accord with legal justice. And Canada, by remaining silent, becomes complicit with this Bush administration in violation of the rule of law."

Khadr is the second person at Guantanamo Bay to get a firm trial date.

Earlier, another judge scheduled July 14 as the start of a trial for a former driver for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Defence lawyers said that trial is likely to be delayed by legal motions.

On Wednesday, the U.S. military decided that Khadr was apparently in good health, contradicting another defence lawyer's claim that the prisoner was too sick to attend the hearing.

Khadr's military lawyer, U.S. Navy Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, said the Canadian had suffered dizziness, possibly caused by shrapnel in his eyes, for several days.

Last week, Parrish rejected a request to postpone Khadr's pretrial hearing. Khadr's lawyers had said they wanted more time to study the Supreme Court decision to see how it affects their client.

Kuebler suggested the Supreme Court decision could nullify previous rulings by the tribunal as it prepared for Khadr's upcoming trial.

Parrish recently replaced Col. Peter Brownback as the judge presiding over Khadr's case.

The U.S. military took the unusual step of stating the change of judges was "unrelated" to any of Brownback's decisions in any of his cases.

Brownback was replaced because the army decided in February not to extend the judge's active duty status beyond the June 29 date he was supposed to return to retirement, the military said. This happened even though Brownback was willing to stay.

Kuebler has called the explanation "odd."

U.S. officials say they plan to prosecute about 80 prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay and have charges pending against 19 including Khadr.

- With files from The Associated Press.