G8 'to back' child abuse database

[T_i_B]

This is the result of the G8 Justice and Home affairs summit in my home town of Sheffield. I was in Sheffield yesterday, although I left before the road closures and the big anti-G8 protest on Devonshire Green. Make of this what you will.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4096060.stm

Plans for a world paedophile register to help tackle people who prey on children look set to move a step closer at a summit of key economic powers.

G8 nation interior ministers decided in 2003 the database would be set up and are now looking at what is required to make it work technically.

UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke is chairing Thursday's Sheffield summit of interior ministers from the G8 - which is made up of seven of the world's richest nations plus Russia. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The G8 two years ago commissioned a report on how we could do this with new technology and how we can work together well.

"Interpol has done the work ... and there has been very good progress. We have been able to use the technology and take it forward. And as a means of tackling this kind of vile organised crime, it is very positive."