Four suspected Islamic militants accused in 2005 restaurant bombings on Indonesia's resort island of Bali went on trial Tuesday on charges that carry the death penalty.

Alleged terrorist Muhamad Cholily sits during his first trial appereance in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia,Tuesday, May 9, 2006. Cholily is accused of helping fugitive terror mastermind Noordin Top to orchestrate the attacks on three tourist restaurants in Kuta and Jimbaran Bay last October. [AP]

The trials are the first in the triple suicide bombings, which killed 20 people. Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked group believed to be fighting for an Islamic state across much of Southeast Asia.

The same group has been blamed for at least four attacks in Indonesia in recent years, including the attacks on Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

Facing trial are Dwi Widianto, 30; Mohammad Cholily, 28; Abdul Azis, 30; and Anif Solchanudin, 24. All four are accused of supplying and transporting the explosives and sheltering Noordin Top, a Malaysian regarded as a key leader in Jemaah Islamiyah.

Top claimed responsibility for the 2005 Bali attacks in a videotape released shortly afterward and is also believed to have played a leading role in the 2002 Bali attacks. Police say he narrowly eluded capture during a recent raid on his hideout on Indonesia's main island of Java.

If found guilty, the four suspects could face the death penalty.

A prosecutor, reading from Top's videotaped statement of responsbility, said the attacks were intended to avenge the deaths of Muslims killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We declare our enemies are those that help the American alliance kill Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan," Olopan Nainggolan quoted the statement as saying. "This was revenge for that."

Hundreds of police guarded the courthouse in Denpasar, Bali's main town and a short journey from the scene of the bombings in two of the island's main tourist districts.

The men are being tried individually, in separate courtrooms. Prosecutors read out their indictments against the men, who were not required to enter a plea or respond to the charges during Tuesday's hearings.

According to the indictments, the suspects communicated using instant messaging, and the three backpack bombs were built on Indonesia's main island of Java before being taken to Bali.

Prosecutors said Azis distributed Top's claim of responsibility on a Web site. Solchanudin, meanwhile, had trained to be a fourth suicide bomber, but did not take part in the attacks for reasons as yet unknown, they said.

"The accused underwent physical and mental training for being a suicide bomber," the prosecutor at Solchanudin's trial said. "He was told that if he spilled his own blood then the doors of heaven would be open for him and 70 members of his family."

Four Australians and one Japanese died in the attacks at the three crowded restaurants. The rest of the fatalities were Indonesians. At least 100 others were wounded in the blasts.

The trials were adjourned until next week, when defense lawyers are to present their objections to the charges.

Courts on Bali sentenced three Jemaah Islamiyah militants to death for planning and carrying out the 2002 blasts. The three, who are among more than 200 suspected Islamic terrorists arrested in Indonesia in recent years, are on death row.

Despite the crackdown, analysts and foreign governments say Jemaah Islamiyah remains active in Indonesia, a secular, mostly moderate country with long-standing business and political ties to the United States and other Western nations.

Jemaah Islamiyah is also accused of direct involvement in the Australian Embassy bombings in 2004, which killed 11 people and wounded 200, and a 2003 car bombing at a J.W. Marriott hotel that killed 12.