Downey Jr back in court

Downey Jr with Ally McBeal co-star Calista Flockhart

Actor Robert Downey Jr has pleaded innocent to reduced drug charges stemming from his arrest last November in a Palm Springs hotel.

Police allegedly found the actor in a room with a small amount of cocaine and Valium after an anonymous call.

The 36-year-old did not speak during the hearing at the California courtroom.

Downey Jr is scheduled to return to court on 16 July.

Downey faces one felony count of possessing cocaine and one misdemeanour count of being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Downey won a Screen Actors Guild award for best actor in January

Prosecutors reduced another charge of possessing Valium from a felony to a misdemeanour.

Downey Jr's attorney Robert Waters entered a plea of not guilty on all counts.

This was Downey's first public appearance since going into rehab following his most recent arrest last month in Culver City.

Deputy District Attorney Tamara Capone told reporters outside the courthouse that prosecutors and defence lawyers were working on a possible plea bargain.

If a plea bargain is reached, Downey Jr may escape a jail sentence.

High cost

After last month's Culver City arrest, toxicology reports on urine samples voluntarily submitted by Downey Jr "showed the presence of cocaine".

But the district attorney's office decided not to pursue the case with a charge. Prosecutors said that arrest would be handled as a parole violation.

The incident cost him his role in the hit TV series Ally McBeal for which he won a Golden Globe earlier this year.

Some episodes had to be re-written without him.

The actor checked himself into a live-in drug treatment centre after his arrest.

Downey Jr has had repeated problems with drugs and the law.

In 1996, police found cocaine, heroin and a pistol in his vehicle after he was stopped by police for speeding.

A month later, he was found passed out in a neighbour's house and was hospitalised at a substance abuse treatment centre.

In August 1999 Downey Jr was sentenced to three years in prison for violating his probation by skipping scheduled drug tests, but was released a year later on bail.