DUBAI Five Britons, an Australian and two Arabs are to face trial in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on charges of trafficking drugs on the Internet, an offence which can carry the death penalty, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

AFP quoted ****Gulf News**** as saying the suspects were accused of smuggling, possessing, trafficking and abusing drugs and that an Islamic court in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah would review the case on February 19.

The group smuggled around 500 grams (one pound) of cocaine and small quantities of hashish into the UAE, according to major Jamal Ahmad al-Tair, head of the anti-narcotics department of Ras al-Khaimah police.

He charged that the suspects under arrest had used the "swallow and regurgitate" method to smuggle in the drugs.

Most of the suspects, including an air hostess for the Dubai-based Carrier Emirates, were rounded up in Dubai. The group, including an Australian and three British women, operated between the two emirates, according to police.

The British Consulate in Dubai said it has been given access to the suspects and that they were in good health.

Several foreigners have been sentenced to death under a 1995 law that lays down capital punishment for drug trafficking. But no executions -- normally by firing squad in the UAE -- have been announced for narcotics crimes.

Death sentences are often commuted to life in prison, which in the UAE is a 15-year term.

Two British nationals who had served almost half of a four-and-a-half year sentence in the UAE for drug smuggling were pardoned on December 25 to coincide with the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramazan.

Another Briton was arrested on drugs charges in Dubai in November.