Bangkok: The number of Thais entering Thailand's booming sex trade rose with more than 50,000 in the year 2003 despite an improving Thai economy and war on poverty in Thailand, a survey is showing.

Chulalongkorn University political science professor Nitet Tinnakul said some 2.8 million Thais, including women, men and children, served as sex workers throughout Thailand from 1999 to 2002, the Nation newspaper reported.

About 800,000 of them were under 18 years of age, it said, though the report did not provide comparative annual figures for the industry. Nitet Tinnakul reportedly listed the number of sex service outlets in Thailand at more than 60,000 venues.

If we judge by the rising number of sex service venues in Thailand, I believe the number of prostitutes is much higher, Khun Nitet was quoted as saying. The increase of sex services shows that the Thai government's war against poverty is not effective.

He further said that 33.9 percent of the prostitutes had entered the trade because they had no other form of work, while the rest turned to prostitution to supplement their income.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has vowed to eradicate poverty in Thailand within six years.

The survey was based on interviews with prostitutes and sex workers, the Nation newspaper said, adding that Nitet Tinnakul supported the legalization of Thailand's sex industry.

The opinion jibed with that of Thai prostitutes and academics who gathered last month at a government-organized debate and said they strongly opposed legalizing Thailand's sex industry, arguing it would increase child exploitation and lure more women to the trade.

An expert at the debate said the experience of Western countries which decriminalized prostitution showed that trafficking in humans destined to be sold into the sex trade had exploded as a result, with child prostitution numbers tripling.

The Thai government has been keen to stamp out Thailand's image as a sex tourism destination, and has launched a crackdown which ordered bars and other entertainment venues closed at 2:00 am.