The United States on Thursday urged Egypt's interim military rulers to reconsider a military court's verdict to jail a blogger for two years after he criticized the army.

"We are very concerned about reports that the military court has again sentenced (Michael Nabil) to prison for criticizing the Egyptian Armed Forces," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

"Civilians ought to be tried in civilian courts," she said.

"We continue to urge the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to reconsider this verdict and we call on the government to protect the universal rights of all Egyptian citizens, including the right to free expression," she said.

An Egyptian military court sentenced Nabil to two years in prison on Wednesday after he went on a hunger strike to protest an initial three-year sentence.

Nabil, who had criticized the ruling military on his blog and called on people to avoid the draft, had been sentenced to three years in April in a widely criticized trial.