APA-Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) Tanzania is still a source and transit point for children trafficked to South Africa, Europe and the Middle East to engage in forced labour and sexual exploitation, a United Nations report has charged.

The report also said children were being sold for ritual purposes in the country, a charge that the government, however, has denied as being false.

\"There is also visible mobility of children around and within the country, with children being internally trafficked from rural to urban areas to work as domestic servants in nightclubs and bars,\" the report says.

The findings are contained in the report by the Committee on the Rights of the Child that was issued early this week in Geneva during the 49th session to examine member country profiles on implementation of protocols on the convention on the rights of the child.

The meeting reviewed progress made by governments to limit the sale of children, fight child prostitution and child pornography.

The Committee works under the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Tanzania ratified the protocol in April in 2003 and is obliged to submit regular reports to the monitoring committee on how the protocol is being implemented.

However, in minutes submitted to the Committee by the Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children, Margaret Sitta, the government indicated it had not been aware of any cases of children being sold.