The High Court ordered the tests on the three-year-olds to discover whether they are biological siblings and whether they are related to the couple who say they are their parents.

"The court on Wednesday ordered the DNA tests and the results will be presented in court on August 12,'' said Elina Khan, a lawyer for the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights.

Former deputy inspector general of police Anisur Rahman has maintained that the four boys and three girls are his biological children and are septuplets.

But Khan's group in 2006 accused him of planning to traffic the youths.

The children had been in Rahman's care until yesterday, when the court granted temporary custody to a women's lawyers association.

The US State Department estimates that up to 20,000 women and children are trafficked annually from or via Bangladesh to India, Pakistan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Most are from impoverished rural areas and end up working in the sex trade or as domestic helpers in slave-like conditions

The Australian