Not-guilty plea from Hosni Mubarak

Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, accused of corruption and involvement in killing protesters, has went on trial, delighting those who overthrew him and ringing an alarm bell for other autocrats in the Arab world.

In a scene Egyptians would have found unthinkable only eight months ago, the man who ruled them for 30 years was wheeled, in a hospital bed, behind the bars of a courtroom cage to hear charges that could result in the death penalty.

Mubarak, who has a heart condition, is the first Arab leader to stand trial in person since popular uprisings swept the Middle East this year.

His two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were also in the defendants' cage, clutching copies of the Koran, alongside former interior minister Habib al-Adli and six senior security officials.

"I entirely deny all those accusations," said the 83-year-old former president after the prosecutor accused him of having intended to kill protesters during the 18-day revolt that toppled him on February 11 and during the previous decade.

The prosecutor also charged Mubarak with corruption and wasting public funds, and said he had authorised al-Adli to use live ammunition in the quelling of demonstrations. About 850 people were killed in the unrest.

A military council led by a long-serving defence minister, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, took over when Mubarak quit. It has promised a transition to democracy in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation - but the process is far from complete.

Defence lawyers asked for Tantawi, former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and about 1600 others to testify, a move that will embarrass Egypt's new military rulers.

The military has tried to distance itself from Mubarak but has failed to silence critics who accuse it of trying to shield its former commander by delaying his trial.

Many Egyptians still revere the army but some protesters say that it too must be reformed, faulting its handling of the transition and its vast commercial and industrial interests in Egypt.

After the court session, Judge Ahmed Refaat said Mubarak would be moved to a Cairo hospital instead of to the hospital in the Red Sea resort town Sharm el-Sheikh, where he has been since April.

Mubarak was ordered to attend the next court session, set for August 15.