US soldier Specialist Jeremy Sivits faced a court martial on Wednesday on charges of abusing Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib jail.

Sivits, a 24-year-old military policeman, will appear in a courtmartial in the coalition headquarters in Baghdad on charges of conspiracy, dereliction of duty and maltreatment.

Defence lawyers have indicated that Sivits, who faced a special rather than a general court martial and with it much lesser potential penalties, will plead guilty to the charges.

In an effort to show it can bring its own soldiers to justice, even as more and more ordinary Iraqis become disillusioned, the US military is holding the trial in public, in a conference hall once part of Saddam Hussein's presidential complex.

Under the terms of a special court martial, the maximum sentence Sivits could face if convicted would be 12 months detention, demotion to private, the docking of two-thirds pay and allowances for a year and a fine.

The court martial will begin at 1 p.m. (0900 GMT). Arraignments were under way for three other soldiers, Specialist Charles Graner,Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick and Sergeant Javal Davis, who face more severe charges linked to the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib.

All the three soldiers deferred entering pleas in the procedural hearings in a courtroom at the Baghdad Convention Center.

Colonel James Pohl, the only judge in the arraignments, ordered the three soldiers to return for a new hearing in Baghdad on June 21.

Source: Xinhua