The doctor accused of manslaughter in the 2009 death of Michael Jackson is set to stand trial Tuesday, a proceeding expected to draw coverage by TV networks, websites and other media outlets around the world.

If convicted, the physician, Conrad Murray, could face a four-year prison term and the permanent loss of his medical license, which has been suspended pending the trial's outcome.

Dr. Murray is accused of injecting the pop singer at his rented mansion with a powerful anesthetic, propofol, that normally is used in surgical settings, and then not properly monitoring Mr. Jackson as he succumbed to what prosecutors call 'acute propofol intoxication.'

The doctor's lawyers had planned to call a dozen witnesses, including another physician who had treated Mr. Jackson, who were expected to testify that the singer's demands for the medication were part of a broader set of problems. These included dependency on other drugs, mounting debts and insomnia.

But last month, Judge Michael Pastor of Los Angeles Superior Court barred the witnesses, saying such matters are 'convoluted, distracting and detracting.'

Judge Pastor has ruled that the defense can call other medical professionals from whom Mr. Jackson had demanded propofol.

In the years before his death, Mr. Jackson accrued debt of as much as $500 million. Paying the interest on his loans was a major motivation in scheduling the concert series for which he was preparing at the time of his death.

Speaking of Mr. Jackson's finances, Judge Pastor said he was unwilling to let the trial become a 'battle of accountants' or 'a salacious analysis of personal financial issues.'

The trial is likely to focus narrowly on the events leading up to Mr. Jackson's death on the morning of June 25, 2009, at his house near Los Angeles's expensive Bel Air neighborhood.

Dr. Murray was talking on his cellphone and sending text messages at the same time he was giving Mr. Jackson an intravenous drip of propofol, according to records presented by prosecutors during pretrial hearings. Prosecutors said Dr. Murray should instead have been closely monitoring his patient's vital signs.

An attorney for the physician, who pleaded not guilty, didn't return calls or emails seeking comment.