Bradley Manning apologises for 'hurting the US'

US soldier Bradley Manning took the stand at his sentencing hearing in the WikiLeaks case and apologised for hurting his country. He pleaded with a military judge for a chance to go to college and become a productive citizen.

Manning addressed the court on Wednesday after a day of testimony about his troubled childhood in the state of Oklahoma.

The court also heard of the extreme psychological pressure that experts said he felt in the "hyper-masculine" military because of his gender-identity disorder - his feeling he was a woman trapped in a man's body. The court saw a photo that Manning sent to his military therapist, showing the young soldier in a woman's wig and make-up.

One psychiatrist said Manning showed symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome and Asperger's syndrome.

"I am sorry my actions hurt people. I'm sorry that they hurt the United States," Manning said. The soldier said he understood what he was doing, but that he did not believe at the time that leaking a mountain of classified information to the anti-secrecy website would harm the US.