Campaigners in Africa face an uphill struggle

Ms Toubia said it was common in 28 African countries in the sub-Saharan and north-eastern regions - in Sudan, around 90% of women have had their genitals cut.

She believes women's empowerment and education are the keys to preventing it - the ritual will survive as long as men in some communities seek to control women and women's sexuality.

Europe acts

With increasing immigration to European countries from Africa, many Western governments are tackling the issue for the first time.

France was the first country to bring charges of female genital mutilation against members of the African immigrant community, even though in France there is no specific legislation against the practice.

French lawyer Linda Weil-Curiel told the conference that the number of known excisions in France had decreased since the first cases came to court, proving, she argued, the deterrent effect of legal action.

In the first case of its kind, in February 1999, a young woman brought charges against the person who performed the cutting ritual and her own mother, both of whom were given prison sentences.

Other parents were forced to pay compensation to the victims.

Culture of silence

Other countries with specific legislation against female genital mutilation, like the United States, Switzerland, Britain and Sweden, face different problems.

YIva Sorman Nath of Sweden presented a study of her country's Somalian community entitled "Nobody asked me".

Circumcised women and girls now found themselves living in a country where the practice is a criminal offence and totally unaccepted.

As a result, a culture of silence had grown around them which could only be broken down with education and training for health workers, counsellors and teachers.

This conference has also heard speeches on women in war, domestic violence and the sex trade.

It concludes on Saturday with a declaration on measures to create a world free of violence for women.