A new legislation that passed the first lecture on Thursday will require Moldovan children of ten and older to have a national passport for leaving the country.

Minors at present may cross the border with a birth certificate and their pictures are printed in the passports of accompanying parents.

President Vladimir Voronin, who proposed this legislation, told parliament in a note that his initiative aims to counteract the trafficking in human beings, especially the trafficking in children who oftenly are used by adult offenders as prostitutes or beggars.

The document says travelling children must be accompanied by at least one parent or a person acting under an official mandate.

The initiative was supported by the Communist majority and Our Moldova (AMN) parliamentarians; the Christian Democrats (PPCD) voted against.

PPCD deputy chairman Vlad Cubreacov said that Voronin's project "is designed to obtain supplementary profits" for the Information Technologies Department. The plan is good, other Christian Democrats said, if the passports for children till a certain age are issued for free. They observed that the president tabled the project at a time when children and parents are preparing to holiday outside the country, and many in Romania.

There were no immediate comments from the presidential administration regarding the objections of PPCD parliamentarians.