LOS ANGELES — Sara Jane Olson's lawyers are asking again for more time to prepare, and again, prosecutors are fighting the request.

Jury selection in the oft-delayed, 26-year-old bombing case is underway, and evidentiary hearings are to begin Monday. In a letter dated Wednesday, however, defense lawyer Shawn Snider Chapman asked that those hearings be pushed back until her co-counsel, Tony Serra, finishes another trial "expected to conclude some time next week."

"I am not prepared to litigate the motions for hearing on October 22 in Mr. Serra's absence," Chapman wrote in a letter to Judge Larry Fidler and the prosecution.

Prosecutors shot back late Thursday, filing court papers urging Fidler to ignore the letter and stick to the schedule.

"There is no adequate reason why the defense should not be ready to proceed with motions they sought to litigate, on the date they selected," wrote prosecutors Eleanor Hunter and Michael Latin, adding that they were flying in potential witnesses for the hearings.

Since Olson's 1999 arrest, judges have repeatedly granted her postponements because of the volume of evidence in the case and changes in her legal team. The prosecution has fought the continuances, saying elderly witnesses are dying, and accused Olson of stalling for time.

Still, Chapman said she was stunned that the prosecution was objecting when Serra had a legitimate reason for his absence — an attempted murder case in Modesto.

"It just demonstrates the level of discourtesy and contentiousness" in the case, she said.

The 54-year-old faces life in prison if convicted of murder conspiracy for a plot to bomb police cars in 1975. Prosecutors allege Olson, then known as Kathleen Soliah, was a member of the violent radical Symbionese Liberation Army, the group that kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. Olson was a fugitive for 24 years before the FBI tracked her to St. Paul, Minn., where she had built a new life as a suburban mother and community activist.

Also Wednesday, the prosecution filed papers indicating they would describe the SLA as a "terrorist organization" that "posed a threat to public safety" and "engaged in ... violent activity" during the evidentiary motions. The filing came on the heels of an unsuccessful defense request that the trial be delayed until January because of the September 11 attacks. Olson's lawyers had argued that a public "furor" to root out terrorism would hurt her defense. Fidler denied the motion, saying he believed it was possible to seat an unbiased jury.

Despite the delay attempts, Olson said she is ready for trial. Her supporters have opened a defense committee office in Los Angeles, and this fall Olson began living full time in the city in a bungalow donated by friends. Her three daughters and husband are to join her this weekend.