The Attorney-General in Guatemala is calling for a temporary ban on the international adoption of Guatemalan babies, which he said has become a big and corrupt business.

It's estimated that some two-thousand Guatemalan children are put up for adoption each year, with many going to the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel.

Each child can cost up to thirty thousand dollars.

The attorney-general, Carlos Garcia Regas, told a news conference in Guatemala City that the government was planning to send a new law for approval in Congress early next year which would tighten the current adoption procedures.

Until then he wants a complete ban on children being sent overseas.