A court has opened in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province to try British ex-rock star Gary Glitter on charges of child sexual abuse from March 2-3.

The trial dates were announced at a press conference held by the province's External Relation Office on March 1, which attracted over 50 reporters from 19 foreign news agencies and newspapers.

62-year-old Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was a famous rock-and-roll singer in the early 1970s.

In 1999, Glitter was jailed for possessing 4,000 hardcore pornographic photos of boys and girls.

The ex-rock singer was also accused of assaulting a girl under the age of 16 in the 1980s and of sexually abusing another girl four times.

Glitter has resided temporarily in Vung Tau city since March 2005, where he allegedly had sex with two girls, born in 1987 and 1993.

Based on Vietnamese Law and his family's expectation, the court will be judged secretly. Hoang Thanh Tung, the provincial People's Tribunal Vice President, will act as the court's chairman and Lawyer Le Thanh Kinh, from the Le Nguyen Law Office in Ho Chi Minh City, will defense the accused.