The advert offers a US$5,000 package in return for healthy sperm

It has advertised in a student newspaper in Canada, offering a free, two-week holiday in Australia in return for sperm.

A programme director at the Reproductive Medicine Centre in Albury, south-west of Sydney, said Australian donors had been put off by an imminent change of law which will entitle all children to find out the identity of their parents when they are older.

Ruth Keat said the response to the advert, carried in the Sports section of a Calgary student publication, had been overwhelming.

"We've had emails from Ukraine and Russia," she said. "We just wanted a few donors but now it seems half the world wants to know," she said.

The cost of the offered AU$7,000 (US$5,180) package, which includes a return flight, accommodation for a fortnight and a daily allowance, would be covered by the number of people who require services from the clinic, Ms Keat said.

Candidates must be fit and healthy, between 18 and 40, attend two counselling sessions and undergo blood and semen analysis.

The clinic chose to advertise the offer in a paper in Calgary because one of its gynaecologists is from there, and has contacts who can help test potential donors, Canada's Globe and Mail reported.

The editor-in-chief of the Gauntlet, the paper carrying the advert, said the offer had provoked a lot of jokes on campus, and also a lot of interest.