THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he will ask for a sentence "close to the maximum" for a Congolese warlord convicted of recruiting and using child soldiers.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo was speaking Thursday a day after the court delivered its landmark first judgment, finding Thomas Lubanga guilty of using child soldiers in the Ituri region of Congo in 2002-2003.

Under the court's founding document, the Rome Statute, the maximum sentence available to judges is 30 years or life imprisonment.

A hearing will be scheduled for later this year to determine Lubanga's sentence.