Net closes on cyber criminals

Police admit they have trouble catching electronic criminals

Leaders of the most advanced industrial nations are supporting efforts to negotiate a United Nations convention against organised electronic crime within two years.

The eight world leaders of the G8 summit in Birmingham issued a draft statement outlining the steps they had agreed on combatting "cyber crime" after being warned it posed a global threat to society.

The convention pledged action to combat crime using the Internet, money-laundering, corruption and the illegal manufacturing and arms trafficking.

'Global menace'

It promised backing for efforts to negotiate an effective UN convention against trans-national organised crime within two years, and the implementation of a 10-point action plan aimed at disrupting electronic crime.

The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who was keen to put the issue on the agenda, promised a "global response to a global menace".

The French President, Jacques Chirac, urged tougher controls on offshore financial centres to make it harder to launder drug money. He also voiced alarm about the growth in drugs production and demanded a zero tolerance policy towards soft as well as hard drugs.

The German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, who led a discussion on the issue, said police urgently need material and moral support, according to officials.

Around ¿300bn moves around the world electronically every day

Earlier, the director general of Britain's new National Crime Squad, Chief Constable Roy Penrose, briefed the world leaders on the computer battles waging between international criminals and police.

He said the world was sitting on the threshold of a high-tech boom in international crime because there was a new generation of criminals who had the resources to buy the best expertise in computer technology.

"Trans-national organised crime is sophisticated and flexible," he said. "It will traffic in whatever commodity is profitable - drugs, firearms and even human beings. It launders money. It abuses new computer technology."

G8 countries have been trying for the past three years to step up the fight against organised crime.

They have agreed to review their legal codes to ensure there adequate penalties against cyber crime and committed themselves to developing faster ways to trace attacks by computer hackers.