A two-day international meeting on combatting human trafficking in west Africa opened here Tuesday, drawing member states of the regional ECOWAS grouping as well as United Nations officials.

The meeting was organised jointly by the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNODCCP).

Delegates included officials from the law and interior ministries of the concerned countries as well as immigration and border officials.

Sources said the meeting was expected to culiminate in an action plan to "eradicate" human trafficking in the region.

ECOWAS, founded in 1975 to promote regional economic integration, includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

The region has earned notoriety for rampant human trafficking, especially in children and women.

Ghana's Justice Minister and Attorney-General Nana Akuffo Addo said in an opening statement that west Africa had to work together to end "modern-day slavery.

"How many of us can say that we have gone further to enact the necessary domestic legislation which would make these practices criminal offences in our national jurisdictions?" he said.

Addo urged ECOWAS members to ratify and fully implement an African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and ratify a UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and human trafficking.

He also called for the establishment of "multi-sectoral national task forces" to stem the practice.

The minister said many of the girls being trafficked ended up as prostitutes.

UNODCCP official Burkhard Damman said: "the rapid expansion of trafficking in human beings by organised criminal groups has become an issue of major concern worldwide.

"Increasingly, at national and international levels, criminal organisations have become more sophisticated, due to improved transport, communication and information technology."

Dammon said "corrupt immigration officers are working in league with criminal organisations" and added: "it is thought that between 700,000 and two million women and children worldwide are bought and sold every year."

He said the UN children's agency UNICEF estimated that about "200,000 children are trafficked every year in the central and west African sub-region."