ABC foreign correspondent Peter Lloyd has been sentenced to 10 months in a Singapore prison after being caught in possession of a small amount of methamphetamine or ``ice'' in the island state famous for its hardline stance against drugs.

Lloyd had pleaded guilty to three drugs charges including possessing the drug ice.

He will be taken to Singapore's Changi prison.

Lloyd was composed as he learned of his fate.

Earlier his lawyer had told the court that Lloyd wanted to be reunited with his nine year old son who is seriously ill.

Lloyd, 41, appeared before Singapore's subordinate court, where a panel of judges delivered a verdict and handed down their sentence.

Lloyd, who had postings in Bangkok and New Delhi and covered some of the most traumatic stories in the region over the past five years, has said he became an infrequent user of ice because it eased the recurrent nightmares he was suffering due to post-traumatic stress disorder.

The well-regarded television and radio journalist had also split from his wife and come out as a homosexual in the months prior to his arrest.

It had been thought that the dropping of an earlier trafficking charge against Lloyd augured well for a lesser sentence.

The trafficking charge carried a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and 15 strokes of a rattan cane, an excruciatingly painful punishment.

His lawyer, Hamidul Huq, has previously expressed the view that Lloyd, who was on $60,000 bail, would get a prison sentence of one year.