If found guilty, the girls could get 10 years in jail

Yasemin Vatansever and Yatunde Diya, both 16, were arrested on 2 July as they tried to board a plane in Accra.

The girls, both from north London, were charged with possessing and attempting to smuggle more than 6kg (13lb) of drugs valued at �300,000 into the UK.

The offence carries a jail term of up to 10 years.

The students are being tried under Ghana's Juvenile Justice Act. Their trial must be completed within six months.

Transit point

The girls say they were not aware of drugs in their luggage and had been tricked into carrying them.

Yasemin is the daughter of immigrants from Cyprus, while Yatunde is of Nigerian descent. Both are UK citizens.

Ghana and the West Africa region as a whole have become a major transit point for drugs from South America destined for Europe.

British customs officials are now working with their Ghanaian counterparts to intercept drug smugglers and, since late last year, more than �30m-worth of cocaine has been seized en-route to Britain from Ghana.