By Jane Sutton

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge refused on Friday to halt Australian prisoner David Hicks' war crimes tribunal at the Guantanamo naval base, saying U.S. courts lacked authority over foreign captives held outside the United States.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she had no jurisdiction in the case of Hicks, who is to be arraigned at the controversial Guantanamo detention center in Cuba on Monday on a charge of providing material support for terrorism.

The U.S. Congress passed a law last year stripping U.S. courts of all jurisdiction to hear challenges from foreign citizens held outside the United States as "enemy combatants."

A challenge to that law is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Hicks' lawyers asked that his Guantanamo tribunal be delayed until that case was settled, hoping it would lead to an avenue for him to challenge the legality of the military tribunals at Guantanamo, which are formally called commissions.

"This court lacks jurisdiction to even consider petitioner's claims," Kollar-Kotelly said.

Hicks, 31, was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001 by the Northern Alliance militia and turned over to U.S. forces, then flown to Guantanamo among the first batch of Taliban and al Qaeda suspects to arrive there in January 2002.

The U.S. military accuses him of supporting terrorism by attending al Qaeda training courses, by conducting surveillance on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, and briefly fighting U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Hicks' lawyers said in court documents that the embassy had been closed since 1989 and that there was no evidence Hicks ever fired on U.S. forces. They contend the military tribunal system is stacked toward convictions and violates international law.

Hicks is so far the only person charged under the revised tribunal system Congress approved last year, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an earlier system of military tribunals created by President George W. Bush.

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