Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe granted a request from state prosecutor Stephen Musona to adjourn the trial until August 18 and said that proceedings would wrap up around that time.
"When you come on the 18th we should move to finality," Guvamombe told the court shortly before adjourning the case.
The 70 men, most of whom were arrested aboard a Boeing 727 that stopped in Harare on March 7 to pick up weapons from Zimbabwe's state-run arms manufacturer, have been charged with breaking Zimbabwe's firearms, security, aviation and immigration laws.
The long-awaited trial opened on Tuesday with 67 of the men pleading guilty to minor charges of violating aviation and immigration laws. The judge accepted their plea.
The 67 men await sentencing, which could result in a minor fine or a short jail sentence.
The prosecution yesterday dropped firearms and security charges against pilot Jaap Steyl and two other crew members.
"We accept the withdrawal with pleasure," defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange said.
He added that when they return on August 18 "we would prefer to come here to finalise everything".
"We are waiting for sentencing on the aviation and immigration charges," Samkange said.
On Wednesday, the alleged leader of the group, Briton Simon Mann pleaded guilty to attempting to possess dangerous weapons in Harare, but denied having purchased more than $180 000 worth of firearms illegally.
Two other men who were arrested at the airport with Mann have also been cleared of charges to purchase weapons illegally, but still face charges of conspiring to possess dangerous firearms.
The families of both the plane crew and the weapons inspectors have welcomed the charges being dropped, but have expressed concern about the further remand.
"I suppose it is better than nothing," said Marge Payne, wife of the co-pilot Ken Payne, "but why are they keeping them in there for so long?"
"What they are doing is against the law. They have dropped charges against my brother. Why aren't they releasing him?," asked Jerry Carlse, brother of one of the two men arrested along with Mann.
The men's relatives have appealed to South Africa's Constitutional Court to force the government to bring the men home for trial, but they are still awaiting judgement in that case.
The alleged soldiers of fortune are from Angola, Namibia, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo and have maintained that they were on their way to do security work on diamond mines in the DRC.
But authorities say the men were on their way to topple the longtime leader of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
All of the 70 men were travelling on South African passports when they arrived in Harare and were arrested on a tip-off from the South African government.
The families' worst fear is that the men would be extradited to Equatorial Guinea where they are likely to face the death penalty. – Sapa-AFP.
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