By Tom Brown

MIAMI, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The United States pressed its case on Thursday for former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega's extradition to France, countering objections from his lawyers that prompted a Florida judge to suspend temporarily the court-approved extradition.

In papers filed in U.S. District Court in Miami seeking to overturn the suspension, the U.S. Attorney's Office disputed allegations by Noriega's lawyers that France would fail to offer Noriega the same treatment he was granted in the United States as a prisoner of war, protected under rules of the Geneva Conventions.

The 73-year-old Noriega is scheduled to be released on Sunday from a prison south of Miami after serving a 17-1/2-year term on U.S. drug trafficking, racketeering and conspiracy charges.

He was convicted in absentia in France, after the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, of using drug money to buy three luxurious Paris apartments and could face another 10 years in prison there.

Since two Florida judges already issued rulings last month clearing the way for Noriega's extradition to Paris, the U.S. Attorney's Office argued in its court filing that the matter was no longer a proper subject for appeals or judicial review.

"Once a fugitive has been found extraditable by the Judicial Branch, responsibility transfers by the governing statute to the Secretary of State," the attorney's office said, referring to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"Extradition is an executive, not a judicial function. The power to extradite derives from the president's power to conduct foreign affairs," it added, citing legal precedent.

Further backing its demand for Noriega's extradition -- and the argument that the Geneva Conventions cannot be invoked as grounds for blocking it -- the attorney's office cited the Military Commissions Act approved by U.S. lawmakers in 2006 and which covers foreign terror suspects in Guantanamo naval base.

"Section 5(a) of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 has codified the principle that the Geneva Conventions are not judicially enforceable by private parties," the attorney's office said in its filing.

NORIEGA SEEKS RETURN HOME

It did not elaborate but the act, parts of which are currently under review by the Supreme Court because of questions about their constitutionality, set out new rules for the prosecution and interrogation of foreign terrorism suspects.

It also took away the right of prisoners held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their confinement in cases before U.S. federal district court judges.

In their appeal on Wednesday, Noriega's attorneys argued that Noriega's prisoner of war status under the Geneva Conventions meant that he should be immediately returned home when his U.S. sentence ends.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge William Hoeveler, the same judge who presided over the U.S. trial leading to Noriega's conviction in 1992, temporarily suspended the extradition order on Wednesday.

It was not clear when he would issue a final ruling on the appeal but an assistant to the judge said his decision could come at any time.

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