International crime costs developed countries 2 per cent of GNP, and greater freedom of movement and trade is being exploited by increasingly devious and sophisticated criminals, the G8 leaders heard this weekend.
The summit vowed to negotiate a United Nations convention on transnational organised crime to help police co-operation.
In a separate discussion, the G8 leaders said the global economy needed "further urgent action" to resolve the "millennium bomb", the computer glitch that could crash computers around the world on January 1st, 2000.
In a video presentation and lecture to the summit leaders, Mr Roy Penrose, the director general of Britain's newly-created National Crime Squad, said that reducing restrictions on people and business was a good thing, but authorities had to react quickly to stop it also helping crime to flourish.
Industrialised countries were already losing around 2 per cent of GNP to international crime, with the figure in developing countries as high as 14 per cent, he said.
"Transnational organised crime is sophisticated and flexible. It will traffic in whatever commodity is profitable drugs, firearms and even human beings. It launders money. It abuses new computer technology," Mr Penrose said.
In a world where criminals could wire billions of pounds around the world in seconds, law-enforcement agencies could only fight crime through unprecedented levels of co-operation, he added. "We must continue to focus on the obstacles to practical co-operation and find ways around them," He said.
In response, the G8 leaders said they would negotiate, within two years, "an effective United Nations convention against transnational organised crime that will provide our law enforcement authorities with the additional tools they need".
"We call for close co-operation with industry to reach agreement on a legal framework for obtaining, presenting and preserving electronic data as evidence, while maintaining appropriate privacy protection, and agreements on sharing evidence of the crimes with international partners," yesterday's final statement continued.
The G8 leaders said the Year 2000 "millennium bomb" presented major challenges, with vast implications, in particular in the defence, transport, telecommunications, financial services, energy and environmental sectors.
"We agreed to take further urgent action and to share information, among ourselves.
