LOS ANGELES —  The Australian government wants hearings to begin without delay against a citizen who has spent five years in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, the foreign minister said Thursday.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer added that his government was aware of the seriousness of the crimes leveled at suspected Taliban fighter David Hicks.

"I reckon charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit war crimes are kind of serious," Downer told reporters at a seminar on Asia-Pacific relations. "It's not being charged with a speeding offense, doing 60 miles an hour through a 50 mile-an-hour zone or something."

Hicks, a former kangaroo skinner from southern Australia, was captured in Afghanistan by the Northern Alliance during the U.S.-led invasion in December 2001 and transferred a month later to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he is still awaiting trial.

The 31-year-old father of two was originally charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit war crimes and aiding the enemy, and was selected to face a U.S. military tribunal. His case was thrown into limbo when the U.S. Supreme Court in June declared the tribunals illegal.

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Pressure has been mounting in Australia for Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government to press U.S. officials for an immediate trial for Hicks or allow him to return home.

"It's our expectation that the charges will be laid very soon," Downer said. "It's an issue we raise with the president and secretary of state and the attorney general and the secretary of defense and so on. And we raise it on many occasions."

Downer said Howard discussed Hicks' detention with President Bush on Wednesday, the same day the prime minister affirmed his country's support for the president's reworked war effort in Iraq.

Australia maintains about 1,300 troops in and around Iraq, mostly guarding its own diplomats and helping train Iraqi forces in two relatively peaceful southern provinces.

Downer said the Australian government has no plans to increase troop levels in Iraq. Howard had previously said an increase was unlikely but refused to rule one out.

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