PARIS - The trial of six men suspected of plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Paris in 2001 opened Monday, with tense exchanges between the chief judge and the suspected ringleader.

Djamel Beghal, a 39-year-old Algerian-born French citizen who is suspected of being one of Osama bin Laden's most important operatives in Europe, resisted demands by the chief judge, Philippe Vandingenen, to state an affiliation with a particular Muslim political movement.

"I am a Muslim," Beghal declared, adding, "Isn't that enough for you?"

Arrested in Dubai in July 2001, Beghal initially confessed to interrogators there that he was the leader of a group planning to bomb the embassy under orders from al-Qaida. He later retracted his confession, telling the French authorities that his interrogators had tortured him.

On Monday Beghal told the court that he had confessed under "methodical torture."

Beghal was extradited to France later in 2001 and has been kept in solitary confinement ever since. On Monday in Paris' main criminal court, he spoke in fluid French, standing up to Vandingenen, who repeatedly interrupted him during questioning.

When the judge pressed him on his political ideology and whether he was part of an international "holy war" movement, Beghal said, "It feels like we're in a court of the Inquisition."

Vandingenen hit the table with his hand and declared the claim was untrue, adding that the court - not the defendant - was in charge of the proceedings.

Beghal further infuriated the judge by refusing to say why he had gone to live in Afghanistan.

He and the five other defendants are being tried for "associating with criminals connected with a terrorist enterprise," a broadly defined crime that gives France broad powers to arrest, detain, try and convict terrorism suspects.

The trial, which is expected to last seven weeks, is being conducted by three-judge panel, not a jury, as is typical in such cases under French criminal law. It follows a three-year investigation by France's top two anti-terrorism judges, Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Jean-Francois Ricard.

If convicted, the six defendants, who have proclaimed their innocence, face up to 10 years in prison.