Samantha Orobator, 20, was detained in August after allegedly being caught with 680 grams of heroin while she was trying to board a plane to Thailand. Normally anyone found in Laos with more than 500 grams of heroin faces the death penalty.

'But another provision of the law also provides that any pregnant (woman) will not be sentenced to the death penalty,' said the government spokesman, Khenthong Nuanthasing. He said a judge would decide on the sentence at the trial.

Orobator's mother, Ms Jane Orobator, has told Britain's Sky News television that her daughter was not pregnant before her arrest.

Khenthong said he understood that the trial - initially expected sometime this week - would be postponed until next week 'due to the issue that we need a lawyer for her.'

The Laotian government will provide her with legal counsel, and the justice ministry is compiling a list of lawyers from which she will be able to choose, he added.

The British charity Reprieve, which helps people facing the death penalty, has sent a representative to Laos and is seeking the appointment of a Laotian lawyer to represent Orobator.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ms Anna Morris of Reprieve told AFP from Laos that a meeting expected with Orobator still had not been confirmed, nor her trial date.

'We are very much in the hands of the Lao authorities, and very much in the dark,' Morris said, adding that her organisation had been told it could meet with Orobator on Tuesday.

A British embassy spokesman in Bangkok said he had not received official confirmation of the trial date. -- AFP