Bradley Manning Faces WikiLeaks Court Martial

The US Army has confirmed that Bradley Manning, the US soldier charged with passing thousands of secret documents to WikiLeaks, will face court martial and the risk of life imprisonment.

In a statement the army said it had approved a recommendation that Private Manning be court-martialled for allegedly funnelling hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the whistle-blower site.

Prosecutors say WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange collaborated with the 24-year-old, who faces a total of 22 charges including "aiding the enemy".

The decision clears the way to set a court-martial date after sensitive documents were published on the internet.

"A military judge will be detailed by the US Army trial judiciary and that military judge will set the date for Manning's arraignment, motion hearings and trial," the army statement said.

Private Manning is also accused of stealing public property or records, transmitting defence information and of committing computer fraud.

A US investigating officer last month concluded that the 24-year-old soldier should be court-martialled because "reasonable grounds exist to believe that the accused committed the offences alleged".

That recommendation followed a seven-day pre-trial hearing in December to determine if there was sufficient evidence for him to face trial.

If convicted, he faces life in prison for what authorities have described as one of the most serious intelligence breaches in US history.

Trained on various intelligence systems, the Oklahoma soldier served in Iraq from November 2009 until his arrest the following May.

He is accused of giving WikiLeaks a massive trove of US military reports from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Authorities said he is also accused of passing on more than 250,000 classified US state department diplomatic cables, Guantanamo detainee assessments and videos of air strikes.