The decisions, which have not been made public, set the stage for the first death penalty trial in the United States involving an act of international terrorism. Judge Leonard B. Sand of Federal District Court in Manhattan has scheduled the trial to begin in January.

The latest defendant who will face a capital prosecution in the attacks is Khalfan Khamis Mohamed, a Tanzanian citizen in his mid-20's who is charged with helping to carry out the bombing of the embassy in Dar es Salaam on Aug. 7, 1998. That attack, along with a nearly simultaneous bombing of the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, killed more than 200 people and wounded more than 4,000.

One of Mr. Mohamed's lawyers, David A. Ruhnke, criticized Ms. Reno's decision yesterday, saying the government had in essence ''selected out the lowest member of this conspiracy, the one who probably had the least to do with any planning that these events would occur.''

''He fulfilled essentially a menial role,'' Mr. Ruhnke said, ''and compared to others who planned this event and made sure that the materiel and expertise was available to carry it out, his involvement was tiny.''

Ms. Reno, meanwhile, has decided not to pursue a death case against Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, who prosecutors say was in Nairobi in the days before the attack but fled the country before it was carried out.

Mr. Odeh has been described by the government as an ardent follower of the Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, whom the authorities suspect of organizing the attacks as part a broad terrorism conspiracy. Mr. bin Laden is a fugitive, believed to be under the protection of the fundamentalist Taliban in Afghanistan.

With the government's death penalty decisions now completed, two defendants could face execution if convicted. The other is Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali, who was charged with participating in the bombing in Nairobi. The four other defendants in the terrorism case face life sentences if convicted. All six men have pleaded not guilty.

Ms. Reno's approach in the case was consistent with the recommendations of Mary Jo White, the United States attorney for the Southern District, who sought permission to pursue capital cases against Mr. Mohamed and Mr. al-'Owhali, but not Mr. Odeh.

Marvin Smilon, a spokesman for Ms. White, said the office had no comment.

Ms. Reno's reasons for sparing Mr. Odeh from a death penalty prosecution are not known, but the evidence linking Mr. Odeh to a bombing may be less strong than the evidence against Mr. al-'Owhali and Mr. Mohamed.

Prosecutors have charged, for example, that Mr. al-'Owhali was a passenger in the truck that carried the bomb to the American Embassy in Nairobi and that he got out and threw a dummy grenade in the direction of a security guard before fleeing in the seconds before the bomb exploded. Prosecutors contend that Mr. al-'Owhali later admitted to investigators that the attack was intended as a ''martyrdom operation.''

Mr. Mohamed has been accused of preparing TNT used in the bombing of the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam, of helping to load the truck that carried the explosive device, and of riding in the truck for part of the way to the embassy before the blast.

By contrast, there is little publicly available evidence of what the government says was Mr. Odeh's role in a bombing. The indictment charges that he stayed with other co-conspirators in Nairobi in the days before the attack and walked near the American Embassy, but that he left for Pakistan under an assumed name the night before the attack.

Carl J. Herman, one of Mr. Odeh's lawyers, said he was pleased that the government would not seek the death penalty against their client.

''Mr. Odeh has always maintained his innocence with regard to the bombings,'' Mr. Herman said, ''and we believe that their decision in part was based on the complete lack of evidence tying him to either bombing.''