Osama bin Laden and his terrorist cohorts could be sentenced to death by American military tribunals sitting in Afghanistan, it was revealed yesterday.

The tribunals, which could be held in secret, stem from an executive order signed by president Bush on Tuesday which gives an American president the power to use a military tribunal for the first time since the Nuremberg hearings of 1945-1949.

White House communications director Dan Bartlett said: "The conventional way of bringing people to justice doesn't apply to these times."