KOBE BRYANT - O'NEAL MAY TESTIFY AT BRYANT'S RAPE TRIAL

Basketball star SHAQUILLE O'NEAL may be ordered to testify at his former teammate KOBE BRYANT's rape trial - amid new claims Bryant sexually assaulted another woman.

America's SPORTS ILLUSTRATED magazine claims O'Neal - who left the LOS ANGELES LAKERS team last month (JUL04) - could be summoned to court because Bryant allegedly groped a waitress' "private parts" at a party held at O'Neal's house in Orlando, Florida in October 2002, eight months before he was accused of raping a woman in Colorado on 30 June (04).

The magazine insists, "Her testimony might be used by the prosecution to show that aggressive sexual actions are part of Bryant's pattern of behaviour. Colorado prosecutors also contacted O'Neal and told him that O'Neal could become a witness in Bryant's case."

Bryant - whose trial is due to start on 27 August (04) - has pleaded innocent to sexually assaulting the 19-year-old woman in his Colorado hotel room and maintains the sex was entirely consensual.