Doubts raised over Manning's ability to serve sentence as a woman

It is still unclear if Chelsea Manning will be able to serve her sentence in a US military prison as a woman.

The American soldier - formerly known as Bradley Manning - has been jailed for 35 years for leaking secret military documents to Wikileaks.

Yesterday, Manning said she intends to live the rest of her life as a woman and wants to start hormone therapy straight away.

Juliet Eilperin is the White House Correspondent with the Washington Post - she said there have been similar cases in federal prisons where hormone therapy was given - but that is not always the case in other prisons.

"In some cases in state prison an inmate's request to be with say their desired gender has been rejected and they have not be given access to hormone therapy," she said.

"Army officials seem to be raising a question as to whether Manning will be able to be housed with female inmates and whether access to hormone therapy will be granted."