The murders of nearly 1,300 Honduran street children in the past four years are to be investigated by a special security force, the government has announced.

The decision came after the US humanitarian organisation Casa Alianza accused the government of the Central American country of showing little interest in solving the murders.

President Ricardo Maduro promised a New York-style policy of "zero tolerance" for street violence when he took office in January, and decided to send more than 6,000 soldiers and police into cities.

But Casa Alianza said the killings have continued and have claimed the lives of at least 1,293 children since 1998.

Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said the government's new group will start work immediately to investigate the deaths of all street children.

"We are going to clear up once and for all who is carrying out these killings of children and young people," he said.

'Social cleansing' claims

The United Nations Human Rights Commission and other humanitarian groups have blamed police and soldiers for one in 10 of the killings.

They say there is an unofficial policy of "social cleansing" of the poor from the streets.

Orphanages are taking in very young children

Andres Pavon, president of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in Honduras asked: "How is it possible that in this country every day armed people kill children and young people and the security forces don't capture anyone and don't know who are the executioners?"

Honduran police say gang fights are responsible for most of the deaths.

It is estimated that about 20,000 children between the ages of four and 18 live on the streets of the capital Tegucigalpa and other cities.

Deaths are a daily occurrence, with records showing that youngsters are shot in the streets or taken in cars to be killed and dumped elsewhere.

Teenager mutilated

Justina Nunez, the mother of one murdered boy, said she knew her 17-year-old son belonged to a street gang.

"I told him not to go out because they would kill him," she told the Reuters news agency.

The mutilated body of her son Antonio was found two days after armed men forced him into a car at a bus terminal near his home in a poor area of Tegucigalpa.

"I could not say goodbye to my son," Ms Nunez said.