LONDON (AP):

The British government announced plans last Wednesday to make it illegal to pay for sex with women forced into prostitution and to name men who solicit sex on the streets - measures that prostitutes say will put more women at risk.

As part of the Home Office's 'name-and-shame' campaign, people who pay for sex with a prostitute "controlled for another person's gain" could face criminal charges and a fine of £1,000 (US$1,500).

Trafficked

The crime would be a "strict liability offence", which means men would be held accountable even if they didn't know a woman had been trafficked or was working for a pimp, according to the Home Office.

"What I disapprove of is women being exploited in this country, coerced, trafficked into the country, effectively treated as slaves," Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told British Broadcasting Corp radio on Wednesday.

The government also planned to hold lap-dancing clubs to the same licensing requirements as sex shops and sex cinemas. The clubs are currently regulated like pubs.