HAVANA -- U.S. immigration officials charged Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles on Thursday with entering the United States illegally, which could lead to his deportation to another country. Venezuela wants Posada in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner, but the U.S. had indicated it won't send him there.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials also said that Posada would be held without bond pending a hearing before an immigration judge scheduled for June 13. The precise location of that hearing was not immediately specified.

``At such a bond hearing, ICE would present its arguments for holding him without bond,'' said an ICE statement. Posada has acknowledged entering the United States secretly through Mexico in mid-March. He was detained by ICE agents on Tuesday, shortly after surfacing publicly for the first time to meet with reporters.

His lawyer, Eduardo Soto, told reports that Posada would ``vigorously oppose'' deportation and would seek to be released on bond while the matter is settled. Soto said Posada will claim that he never lost permanent U.S. legal residency, originally gained in 1962, and that he should be given political asylum in the United States.

``I believe he is legally in this country now,'' Soto told reporters.

Soto said that Posada is being held at an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas, and that he would ask an immigration judge to change venue for the proceedings to Miami. He said Posada's wife lives in the Miami area as well as a 29-year-old son.

Posada will resist extradition or deportation to Venezuela or Cuba, but Soto left open the possibility that he would agree to depart for a third country if an acceptable friendly nation was found.

``Everything is on the table,'' Soto said.

Posada, 77, is an ex-CIA operative and bitter opponent of Cuban President Fidel Castro. He is wanted by Venezuela for his role in plotting the bombing of a Cubana Airlines flight, which killed 73 people when it crashed near Barbados.

Posada has denied taking part in the bomb plot and he was acquitted after two trials in Venezuela.

Venezuela has requested the extradition of Posada for his 1985 escape from a prison there while awaiting a prosecutor's appeal in the bomb case. The U.S. and Venezuela have an extradition treaty, but U.S. officials have said they will not send anyone to a country that it believes is doing Cuba's bidding. Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are close allies.

Castro has repeatedly branded Posada a terrorist and said the Bush administration would be guilty of a double standard in the war on terrorism if the United States grants him safe harbor. Posada was pardoned last year by Panama's president for his role in an alleged assassination plot against Castro and has been linked to a series of 1997 bombings in Cuba that killed an Italian tourist.

Soto has said his client should be granted U.S. asylum because of his anti-Castro views, his history as a CIA operative and because he faces persecution from both Cuba and Venezuela.
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