Two Filipino men have also been convicted of child sex offences. Another Briton, alongside a Frenchman and a German, are awaiting trial on child-abuse offences.Social workers in Manila are worried that some men are turning to children in the mistaken belief that they are less likely than prostitutes to carry the Aids virus.. Keyhole surgery for the heart, which is undergoing clinical trials in three British hospitals, could replace conventional by-pass operations, doctors said yesterday. The first foreigner to be sent to jail was Keith Fitzgerald, a 66-year-old Australian found guilty of paying to have sex with a 13-year- old girl. However,Filipino law makers believe that stepping up punishment is the way to deter offenders.

Earlier in the year they passed a law imposing the death penalty for child abusers whose crimes lead to the death or insanity of a minor.Remarkably, given the high level of known paedophilic activity in the Philippines, only four people, including Mitchell, have been successfully prosecuted for child-sex abuse. In cases against other paedophiles, the prosecutions were handled so incompetently that no convictions were secured.However there is a growing political determination to tackle the problems of paedophilia and child prostitution. In 1992 a law was passed to give special protection to children threatened by paedophiles.Mitchell's conviction coincides with the visit to Manila by Ann Widdecombe, the Home Office minister, who was briefing the Philippine authorities on British legislation to prosecute paedophiles who commit illegal acts overseas.It also coincides with the end of a training programme,conducted by officers from Scotland Yard, for a squad of 26 Filipino policemen, justice department agents, state prosecutors and social workers to help the victims, to gather evidence against offenders, and to crack rings of organised paedophiles.Non-governmental child-care agencies in Manila have alleged that many victims of sexual abuse have been forced into prostitution by their families who are living in conditions of extreme poverty. Steven Roy Mitchell, a computer analyst from Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in jail and ordered to pay compensation of200,000 pesos (pounds 5,000) for molesting two boys aged four and eight. Passing judgment in the capital, Manila, Judge Lorenzo Veneracion, said he was satisfied that Mitchell was "guilty beyond reasonable doubt". The 44-year-old Briton had been renting a room in the apartment where the boys live. He was found to have offered inducements to family members to gain access to the boys.This was the second time that Mitchell has been charged with a similar offence. It is believed that he avoided prosecution the first time by making payments to the victims' families.

Mr Lewis, and not the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, took the blame for the operational failings which led to the break-out from Parkhurst jail.Giles Radice, the Labour chairman of the committee, said it was vital the relationship between minister and chief executive was "defined more closely". He believed the setting out of ministerial accountability was a crucial reform.The Government has three months in which to respond.. A Briton living in the Philippines has become the second foreigner to be sent to jail following the Philippine government's decision to crack down on paedophiles. "Ministers have an obligation to Parliament which consists in ensuring that government explains its actions," the MPs said. They "have an obligation to respond to criticism in Parliament in a way that seems likely to satisfy it - which may include resignation". Any minister "who has been found to have knowingly misled Parliament should resign".Other recommendations included: allowing MPs to complain to the parliamentary ombudsman about their treatment by a Whitehall department; it should be standard practice for ministers, when refusing to answer a parliamentary question, to give the grounds for withholding information; civil servants should be brought within the same rules that govern disclosure to MPs by ministers; and the Osmotherly Rules, covering evidence to select committees by civil servants, should be amended to allow chief executives of government agencies to appear before MPs.The recommendations on executive agencies stem from the row last year over the departure of Derek Lewis, head of the Prisons Service. In a reaffirmation of the doctrine of ministerial responsibility, the Commons Public Service Select Committee, said: "It is not composed of two elements with a clear break between the two." The committee was examining the issues raised by the Scott report and the lack of candour shown by ministers in telling Parliament that the guidelines on exports to Iraq had been changed.