HOUSTON -- Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron chief executive whose reputation for nurturing innovations that woke up the once-sleepy energy industry shattered along with the company, must wait until next week to provide much-awaited testimony in his fraud and conspiracy trial.

He spent Thursday awaiting his chance to testify, but lawyers on both sides spent the day questioning Enron's former top in-house lawyer, pushing the ex-CEO's long testimony to Monday.

"I've waited five years, I think I can wait another weekend," Skilling said.

Skilling, 52, is expected to repeat statements he made years ago to congressional panels and the Securities and Exchange Commission during the storm of scrutiny touched off by Enron's swift 2001 collapse: He committed no crimes, and he believed the company was strong when he abruptly resigned a few months earlier.

"It is my belief that Enron's failure was due to a classic run on the bank, a liquidity crisis spurred by a lack of confidence in the company," Skilling defiantly told one of the congressional panels during the highly charged hearings in February 2002.

"At the time I left the company, I fervently believed that Enron would continue to be successful in the future," he said.

Prosecutors allege that Skilling and his co-defendant, Enron founder Kenneth Lay, knew the company had serious financial problems when they repeatedly told investors it was healthy and growing.

The government contends that their optimism was intended to mask weak business ventures and earnings derived from accounting tricks that could no longer sustain Enron as it careened into bankruptcy proceedings in December 2001.

The two men counter that no fraud occurred at Enron other than that committed by a few executives who skimmed millions from secret side deals, they did nothing wrong, and a storm of bad publicity and lost market confidence sank the company.

Charges against Skilling span several years, while those against Lay focus on his actions after Skilling resigned in mid-August 2001.

Lay, who had been CEO for 15 years before ceding that seat to Skilling, resumed that role until he was pushed out more than a month after the bankruptcy filing.

Lay aims to testify as well, but likely won't take the stand until mid-April.