Brazzaville - Child prostitution has reached alarmingly high levels in Congo, a local NGO reported on Wednesday after conducting a state-sponsored, UN funded investigation.

"Prostitution increasingly affects underage girls who sometimes do not use protection. They have no money," said Elie Sosthene Nganga, the head of Attac 3 - an NGO set up to fight drugs, prostitution and HIV or Aids.

"Prostitution has increased during the different cycles of (civil) war, which have divided families and provoked a change in children's behaviour to engage in sexual promiscuity to survive," she added.

Attac 3 interviewed almost 400 minors during its probe in three main districts of Congo's capital Brazzaville.

Child prostitution is parlicularly rife in Bacongo, one of Brazzaville's oldest districts, according to the study that also conducted a census of female prostitutes in four countries: Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal and Benin.

Congo's ministry in charge of promoting female development ordered the research, funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

"We have to increase awareness in order to change this behaviour," said Jeanne Francoise Lekomba Loumeto, the minister responsible for female integration.

A 2003 World Bank-backed study found that 120 000 people suffered from HIV or Aids in Congo, a seroprevalence rate of 4,2 percent.

Congo has experienced a number of civil wars in recent years, notably between 1998 and 2003 in the south of the country.