A Maine man will face federal charges on accusations that he offered a Biddeford man $300 a week to rent the man's 12-year-old daughter for sex, state police said.

Michael Alan Berk, 28, was arrested Tuesday in Frederick County, Maryland, and held on the new federal charges, said Sgt. Eric Byers of the Frederick County Sheriff's office. Byers said Berk was arrested near a hotel after a caller reported a suspicious vehicle in the area.

Deputies found Berk in the car, Byers said, and leaned of the warrant after running his name through a criminal database. Berk was transferred to federal officials, who took him to Baltimore where he will appear before a federal magistrate, Byers said.

The state will likely drop its charge of criminal solicitation and allow federal authorities to prosecute Berk, said police Sgt. Glenn Lang of the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force.

Berk was arrested in late August, a few days after he exchanged e-mails with a Biddeford man, who had put an ad on the craigslist Internet site looking for odd jobs so he could provide for his four children.

Berk suggested that the man rent out his children and said the family could make a lot of money if a daughter was trained to have sex with him.

Berk was freed on $1,000 bail. A court hearing on the state charges had been scheduled for Dec. 19.

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