DHAKA - Bangladesh is to adopt a tough new law to punish those responsible for hundreds of acid attacks every year that often leave their mainly female victims scarred for life.

Law Minister Moudud Ahmed said special tribunals would be set up under the new law to try to ensure justice is carried out in acid attack-linked cases.

"Framing a full-fledged law to check all these crimes... is now at its final stage," he told Parliament late Sunday.

The new law would also include guidelines for police on how to handle such cases, including the treatment of victims.

The maximum punishment for acid attackers is the death penalty, although no one has ever received such a severe sentence and most attackers are never caught or prosecuted, according to the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF).

ASF figures show that 340 men and women were attacked with acid in 2001, of whom 127 were under the age of 18.

The *** Daily Star *** and *** The Prothom Alo *** newspapers in Dhaka put the figures even higher, saying in the past two years nearly 1,000 people had acid thrown at them and some even died from their wounds.

The ASF's Munira Rahman said 70 percent of the cases happened in rural areas and ASF often only found out about cases from local newspapers.

Rahman said that in January this year her organization recorded 33 cases, including one involving a two-month-old baby.

"The baby was not the target, but the baby's mother," she told AFP.

She said women were more often targeted than men by acid throwers, who were usually men.

"Men are victims of land or family disputes, but women are targeted for different reasons including refusal of friendship or marriage proposals, conjugal problems or dowry related matters," she said.

The ASF is helping 24 women who suffered such bad acid burns that they had to go to the United States, england or Italy for treatment.

Bangladesh's leading plastic and burns surgeon, S.L. Sen from the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), told AFP many female victims were so badly disfigured that they contemplated suicide.

"Because of their defaced faces neither their families or anyone else will accept them and unless their rehabilitation is ensured, what life will they have after surgery?" he asked.

Sen, who has treated 500 acid attack patients in the last five years, said a 50-bed burns unit at the DMCH was being set up to provide better treatment for victims.

The sale of acids has been restricted since 2000 to try to curb the attacks, but some traders continue to sell it without asking the buyer what it will be used for, as required by law.

Police sources said some attackers even used battery acid when they could not get sulphuric or hydrochloric acids from shops.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia met acid attack victims in December and pledged to take tough action to punish the culprits.

"We will also take steps to rehabilitate the acid (burn) victims," she said at the time.