The trials of Specialist Charles Graner, facing the largest sentence of a maximum of 28 years in jail if found guilty, Sergeant Javal Davis and Specialist Sabrina Harman would be held at Ford Hood in Texas instead of a US base in Baghdad, it said.
No reason was given for the decision, but lawyers for the three military prison guards have pressed for the trials to be moved out of Iraq due to difficulties in transporting witnesses amid the difficult security situation.
Images of US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at the notorious detention center on the outskirts of Baghdad sparked international outrage and brought great embarrassment to the US administration of George W. Bush.
But defense lawyers have painted portraits of their clients as low-ranking soldiers simply following orders from top brass and falling victim to new get-tough measures employed by interrogators as part of the US-led war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq.
They have demanded that senior officials up the chain of command be summoned to appear as witnesses at the trials, including Colonel Thomas Pappas, the head of the 205th military intelligence brigade assigned to Abu Ghraib.
Pappas has been implicated in at least two Pentagon probes for involvement in the scandal, although he has not been formally indicted.
Davis' lawyer has also indicated he wanted to speak to the men right at the top, namely Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his intelligence deputy, Stephen Cambone, who he believed pressured people beneath them to toughen up on interrogation techniques to squeeze more information out of prisoners.
The request, to force both men to be interviewed by the defense team, has so far been denied.
Graner, 36, who posed in an infamous photograph with naked Iraqi detainees stacked in a pyramid last autumn, will be the first to go before a military judge on January 7.
For his part, 26-year-old Davis faces up to eight-and-a-half years in prison on seven charges including assault, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees and conspiracy.
During a hearing in Baghdad on October 22, his trial date was tentatively scheduled for February 1.
So far seven guards have been charged in the scandal. Last month Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, the most senior US soldier charged, was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in physical and sexual abuse of detainees.
Specialist James Sivits pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced to a year in prison. Specialist Armin Cruz of military intelligence was sentenced last month to eight months in prison.
Forty-five people have been referred for courts-martial in connection with the Abu Ghraib scandal, Rumsfeld said in September.
© 2004 Agence France-Presse