US OFFICIALS HAVE SAID that Bradley Manning, the US Army private suspected of leaking classified military documents to WikiLeaks, is being moved to a different detention facility following international criticism of his treatment.

Manning is being held at the Marine Corps base at Quantico in Virginia, where he spent 23 hours every day alone and was reportedly forced to sleep naked.

He will now be transferred to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

The UN’s rapporteur on torture recently criticised the US government for failing to allow him hold private meetings with Manning, despite his repeated requests to do so.

Juan Mendez is investigating the complaints made about Manning’s treatment in the Virginian facility. Manning’s supporters and Amnesty International have claimed his treatment breaches his human rights.

Earlier this year, President Obama responded to questions about Manning’s detention by saying he was satisfied with Pentagon assurances that the conditions of his detention met with the country’s basic standards.

Controversial footage of a fatal US helicopter attack on civilians and two Reuters employees in Afghanistan in 2007 was released online by WikiLeaks in April 2010. Manning was arrested in May 2010 after US authorities were told that he had allegedly confessed online to computer hacker Adrian Lamo to leaking the video, Wired reported last June.

WikiLeaks has not disclosed the source of its information.

- Additional reporting by the AP