"Sergeant Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death by a military panel here today at 8:40 pm," an army statement issued in Fort Bragg, North Carolina said.

The statement said the results of the trial would be reviewed by Major General Virgil Packett, who may approve the sentence or reduce it all or in part.

The case will automatically be reviewed by the Army Court of Criminal Appeals and then by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Akbar apologized in court for the attack before a military panel pronounced its sentence at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, local television station WRAL reported.

"I apologize for my actions," he was quoted as saying. "When I did that I felt my life was in jeopardy and I had other problems."

Akbar was the first soldier since the Vietnam war ended 30 years ago to face a death sentence for killing another soldier in wartime.

The last military execution took place in 1961, but seven other service members have been sentenced to death since the military death penalty was reinstated in 1984.

Defense lawyers had blamed mental illness for Akbar's actions on March 22, 2003. He was accused of rolling grenades into three tents at Camp Pennsylvania in the northern Kuwait desert as soldiers slept.

The attack was carried out the night before the unit was to cross the Kuwaiti border into Iraq.

The attack killed Captain Christopher Seifert, 27, and Air Force Major Gregory Stone, 40, and wounded 14 other soldiers.

At the start of the trial, the prosecution said it would prove that Akbar, a convert to Islam, knowingly and wilfully planned and carried out the attacks.

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