Interpol on Tuesday launched a global hunt for a Western man suspected of sexually abusing Asian boys and distributing hundreds of photos of the acts on the Internet.

It is the second time in seven months the international police agency has made such a public appeal, following a search for another paedophile, Christopher Paul Neil, a 32-year-old Canadian, who was arrested in Thailand in October.

"The law enforcement community around the world has done all it can to find this man who clearly presents a danger to young children, and we are now asking the public to help identify this predator and protect other potential victims from abuse," said Interpol chief Ronald Noble in a statement.

Interpol, based in the French city of Lyon, on Tuesday posted six images on its website of the man who is thought to have abused three boys aged between six and 10 in southeast Asia between April 2000 and May 2001.

"It's a white, older man. He must be between 50 and 70. We have no idea of where he is or his country of origin although he seems to come from a Western country; North America, Europe or Australia," Interpol official Yves Rolland told AFP.

The affair came to light in March 2006 after the discovery of hundreds of paedophile images in the computer of a Norwegian man who was later convicted on paedophilia-related charges.

The three boys featured in some 800 shots, of which 100 showed the man Interpol is seeking to identify.

Rolland said the photos were "typical of paedophiles frequenting sexual tourism hotspots in South Asia, especially Thailand and Cambodia."

"The pictures were doing the rounds in child abuser circles," he said.

Norwegian police sent the pictures to Interpol's child exploitation unit, which then circulated the images to its global network of experts to try and identify the man.

The photographs were also entered into Interpol's Child Abuse Image Database (ICAID) for a digital comparison of images received and stored in ICAID from around the world.

"When we made a similar appeal last year, it was information provided by the public which helped identify and locate Christopher Paul Neil, who is now in jail facing child abuse charges," said Noble.

"We hope that people around the world will again play a vital role in tracing this man who could otherwise continue to sexually abuse young children," he said.

Neil, a teacher, was seized in northeast Thailand on 19 October following the worldwide Interpol campaign to track down a man seen in 200 Internet photos abusing Asian boys.

The suspect's face had been digitally swirled in the incriminating pictures, but German computer experts were able to reconstruct the images, which Interpol then posted on its website along with its public appeal.

AFP