MORE than 115 million of the world's children and young teenagers, or more than 7 percent of the total, are engaged in dangerous and life-threatening jobs, the International Labour Organisation has said.

The United Nations agency, which sets standards for employment around the globe, said in a report the industries involved ranged from mining and metalworking through farming and shoe-making to flower-growing and the banana industry.

In a linked statement, a UN investigator said child labour was in great demand by employers because it was cheap "and because children are naturally more docile, easier to discipline than adults, and too frightened to complain".

The statement and the report were issued to mark United Nations World Day against Child Labour which falls on Sunday.

The labour body, which defines children as anyone up to the age of 18, said the total number of young people in hazardous jobs was well over half of those known to be working - the overwhelming majority in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Extreme poverty drives practically all of them to take up both physically and psychologically dangerous jobs.

Many, as young as 5, were employed in such work although the numbers of small children involved has declined in recent years under pressure from campaign groups and public opinion.

But the total number of young people aged 15-17 engaged in such work had risen sharply, it said.

Campaigning over the last decade has reduced the number of girls involved and now 60 percent of the total under the age of 18 - before which labour body conventions say no one should be employed in hazardous jobs - are boys.