US Army Private Bradley Manning, accused of giving a trove of classified documents to WikiLeaks, is to be formally charged later this month ahead of a court-martial, the US Army said Thursday.

Manning, 24, is accused of one of the most serious intelligence breaches in US history and is facing charges that could send him to prison for life.

The US Army said in a statement that the military judge hearing the case scheduled an arraignment for February 23 at Fort Meade in Maryland.

Manning is accused of aiding the enemy, theft of public property, transmitting defense information and other charges.

A seven-day pre-trial hearing was held at Fort Meade in December to determine if there was sufficient evidence for Manning to face trial.

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

He is accused of giving WikiLeaks a massive cache of US military reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, 260,000 classified State Department cables, Guantanamo detainee assessments and videos of US air strikes.