Montesinos, the once-feared former right-hand man of disgraced president Alberto Fujimori, faces 20 years in prison if found guilty of helping send weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Latin America's largest insurgency.

At Tuesday's hearing for oral arguments, which began with a two-hour delay, the court rejected defense attorney Estela Valdivia's request to postpone the trial, arguing that her client was not given time to prepare adequately.

Judge Inez Villa Bonilla declared the request "inadmissible," noting that he has known about the charges for years.

According to the charges, Montesinos, with the backing of Fujimori's government, formed a criminal organization that bought at least 10,000 AKM automatic rifles in Jordan.

The weapons were parachuted onto Colombian territory controlled by the FARC in the first half of 1999, according to the charges.

Montesinos kept silent throughout the day, much as he has done during his five other trials. He has yet to face charges of illegal enrichment, human rights violations and money laundering, among others.

The trial is being held in a special courtroom built inside a maximum security prison at a naval base in El Callao, just east of Lima.

The court will also decide on the fate of 37 other people, including former military officers, a number of Ukrainians -- and French national Charles Acelor, extradited to Peru from Germany just over one year ago.

Acelor is accused of acting as an intermediary for some of the deals. He faces 15 years behind bars.

Alleged Lebanese arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian, who has not been detained, is suspected of aiding Montesinos in the shipping of the arms.

Ronald Gamarra, the country's anti-corruption prosecutor, said he believes Montesinos was counting on the US Central Intelligence Agency's backing in the arms deals, but he added that he does not have factual proof to back his allegation.

Montesinos was present when, in August 2000, Fujimori denounced the operation, three months before his government collapsed.

But those detained in the case charged he knew of the shipments and once Fujimori left office, authorities said they had evidence of Montesinos's implication in the arms trafficking case.

During the 1970s, Montesinos, a former army captain, was at one point accused of treason and held by military authorities on grounds he sold military information to the CIA.

But once he became Fujimori's close advisor, in 1990, files on the incident disappeared and he ended up in a position of control over the armed forces and based at their headquarters he organized a corruption network, charges against him state.

Gamarra said Montesinos sought to "ingratiate himself once more with the CIA" in 1999, as the CIA pressed to see Plan Colombia passed, aimed at radicalizing the fight against FARC in Colombia's jungle.

Fujimori, president of Peru from 1990 to 2000, resigned in disgrace hurt in large part by widespread allegations of corruption and abuse of power surrounding Montesinos.

Montesinos fled the country, and after a lengthy manhunt was captured in Venezuela in June 2001.

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