The Minister for Justice, Mr John O'Donoghue, presided over the formal adoption of the cybercrime convention yesterday at a meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

The convention, which does not take effect here until it is transposed into Irish law, increases police powers to monitor communications and seize computer data.

It will criminalise certain types of computer-related activity and seeks to harmonise cybercrime laws across 43 Council of Europe member-states, the US, Canada, South Africa and Japan.

The convention will also deal particularly with infringements of copyright, computer-related fraud, child pornography and violations of network security. A protocol has also been included to cover the propagation of racist and xenophobic ideas over the internet.

Mr O'Donoghue joined foreign ministers from other EU states in Strasbourg at the adoption ceremony yesterday. The European Union hopes member-states will sign the convention at a meeting in Budapest later this month.

However, a Department of Justice spokesman said yesterday it would be necessary to obtain approval from Government colleagues before signing the convention.

"It will then be necessary to give consideration to any new legislative requirements to enable Ireland to give effect to the convention," the spokesman said.

The convention took four years to negotiate and will only come into force when five states, at least three of which are members of the Council of Europe, ratify it.

Mr Philip Nolan, a solicitor from Mason Hayes & Curran, said it was possible that the Government would delay the convention's implementation. "Because it is an international treaty, and not a piece of EU legislation, there exists no international enforcement body which will compel the Irish Government to implement the convention."

Some 22 groups in nine European countries are campaigning against the new convention, which they believe will undermine privacy and civil liberties.