HANOI - A PREGNANT British woman sentenced this month to life in prison in Laos for drug trafficking was also fined more than US$70,000 (about S$101,000), a Lao government spokesman said Tuesday.

A panel of judges found Samantha Orobator, 20, guilty of trafficking 680 grams (1.5 pounds) of heroin last August, when she was caught trying to board a plane to Thailand.

Government spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing told AFP on Tuesday that Orobator had also been fined 600,000,000 kip, almost US$72,000, at her trial on June 3.

'According to the verdict, she has to pay,' Mr Khenthong said, adding that Orobator had not yet produced the money and he did not know if she could.

Normally, anyone found with more than 500 grams of heroin faces the death penalty.

But Lao Deputy Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith assured British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell during a May meeting in London that a pregnant woman would not receive the death sentence, according to Mr Rammell.

The British minister added that if Orobator were convicted, authorities had said she could serve her sentence in Britain under a newly signed prisoner transfer agreement.

British consular officials have visited Orobator since her sentencing, an embassy spokesman in Bangkok said on Tuesday.

'We're working on trying to get the transfer agreement activated as soon as possible,' the spokesman said.

British legal charity Reprieve, which earlier sent a representative to Laos in a bid to assist her, has said she is due to give birth in September. -- AFP