A sex killer's ability to get a school job in Belgium even after rape convictions in France has highlighted an EU drive to improve the exchange of information on convicted criminals.

　　French forest warden Michel Fourniret, who has confessed to killing nine people, mainly girls, in the two countries, was back in Belgian custody yesterday after showing police where to dig for two bodies on a French country estate where he used to live.

　　The 62-year-old was jailed in France in 1983-1987 for raping minors but moved to Belgium and got a job as a school supervisor without Belgian authorities finding out about his past.

　　"Free movement means free movement for criminals as well," one diplomat said yesterday after the case highlighted the need for better cooperation among the 25 EU states, where the absence of many border controls means criminals can travel unhindered.

　　"You do not want a sex offender to go to another state and work with children, so we need better ways to inform each other if a sex offender is on the move."

　　The case has prompted Danish and Dutch police to probe Fourniret's possible involvement in unsolved crimes in their countries too.

　　EU states already share information on convictions under a so-called mutual legal assistance convention from 1959, but some governments feel this is not working as well as it should.

　　After the March 11 Madrid bombings, EU leaders backed the idea of a register of convicted criminals ranging from rapists to terrorists, and the European Commission is drafting plans for such a European Criminal Record to be presented later this year.

　　But the EU will have to address issues such as the size of the register and the scope under which information can be used before all governments can sign on, diplomats said.

　　"There are basically two options. One is the full-scale European database of convictions. The other is to find some way of making national registers interoperable," one diplomat said.

　　All states have some type of national register of convicted criminals. Some prefer to exchange information from these rather than set up an EU database, due to privacy concerns and the time it would take to set up a pan-European register.

　　"A database takes years to set up and we want something that will work now," the diplomat said.

　　(Reuters)