AMMAN The plight of some 300,000 child soldiers in the Middle East and the world will be at the center of talks among government and military officials as well as UN experts at a conference that opens Sunday in Amman, AFP quoted organizers as saying Saturday.

"Thousands of children, some as young as 10, are serving with armed forces, paramilitaries, youth militias and armed groups in the Middle East and North Africa," the coalition to stop the use of child soldiers said in a statement.

Children are currently engaged in fighting with armed groups in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Turkey and Yemen, it said, while many countries include "military drill and indoctrination" as part of regular school programs.

The coalition did not report any evidence of children being recruited or used systematically by the Palestinian Authority or armed groups in the Intifada, or uprising, against Israeli rule.

It estimated that less than one percent of Palestinian adolescents have taken an active part in clashes with Israeli troops, with this confined to stone-throwing or anti-Israeli demonstrations.

"Most of the children killed have been mere bystanders in their homes or on their way to and from school," coalition coordinator Rory Mungoven said.

Israel meanwhile was said to accept volunteers under the age of 18 in its armed forces.

"The challenge now is to ensure such exploitation and abuse is prevented for future generations," Mungoven said, citing the long-term scars such conflicts leave in children.

The coalition, which groups several international human rights associations, is organizing the three-day conference with UNICEF and Jordan's Institute of Diplomacy.

Participants are expected to debate several working papers focussing on legal measures aimed at protecting children from being unwillingly drafted into the armed conflicts across the globe.

But they will also discuss the psychological development of children who grow in the shadow of bloody confrontations, particularly Arab and Israeli children caught in the Palestinian struggle.

Programs aimed at "rehabilitating" these children will be on the agenda of the conference which also hopes to issue a declaration calling for a worldwide ban on the use of child soldiers in armed conflicts.

Only three countries -- Bangladesh, Canada, Sri Lanka -- out of the 192 UN member states have so far ratified a UN document on the protection of children in armed conflict which has been signed, however, by 75 states.

Jordan, Turkey and Morocco are among the regional signatories of the document which needs to be ratified by at least 10 of the United Nations members in order to come into effect.

The text is hoped to be added to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and spells out seven points, that primarily call on the states and rebel groups to ensure that armed forces do not recruit soldiers under the age of 18 -- contrary to existing international laws that set 15 as the minimum age for recruitment into armed forces and participation in hostilities.

According to UN estimates around 300,000 children under 18 are used in ongoing armed conflicts across the world.

Around 100 participants will take part in the debates including representatives from the Palestinian Authority, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Mauritania. Israel will not attend the conference and Iraq is officially not taking part, organizers said.

The coalition to stop the use of child soldiers includes on its steering committee such organizations as Amnesty International, Defense for Children International and Human Rights Watch.