The children were snatched in the southern city of Yueyang in Hunan province, the Beijing News said. The crimes had been committed since September, it added without saying how many children had been taken.

Thirteen people have since been arrested.

Most of the children were two or three and were sold in Yunnan, Sichuan or Fujian provinces, the newspaper said. The children were sold for prices ranging from 860 yuan (S$187) to 26,000 yuan (S$5,600).

One child was abandoned when it was found to be a girl, the newspaper said.

In 2007, China launched a nationwide crackdown on slavery and child labour after reports that hundreds of poor farmers, children and mentally disabled were forced to work in kilns and mines in Shanxi province and neighbouring Henan.

In April last year, thousands of children in southwest China were sold into slavery like 'cabbages' to work as labourers in more prosperous areas such as Guangdong, newspapers reported earlier.

Since the late 1970s, China has restricted most families to one child. Experts say a traditional preference for boys, especially in rural areas, is leading to a growing gender imbalance stemming from aborted or abandoned baby girls. -- REUTERS