Thirteen European countries have this week agreed to join the UK in its bid to track down and prosecute international email spammers.

Countries including Ireland, Spain, France and the Netherlands have agreed to share information and pursue complaints about unwanted junk mail across national borders, as part of the European Commission initiative.

The agreement will help reduce spam in the UK, which already shares information with European Union members through the Data Protection and Electronic Communications Acts.

'Enforcement authorities in member states must be able to deal effectively with spam from other EU countries,' said information society and media commissioner Viviane Reding.

The commission has also established common procedures to deal with cross-border complaints to close legal loopholes exploited by spammers and data thieves.

'Dealing with spammers when you don't know where they are coming from makes it difficult to prosecute,' a spokesman at the UK Information Commissioner's Office told Computing.

'Cross-border sharing of information will make things easier. This is one of many European initiatives and we have already agreed to share contact information and help with cross-border complaints as part of other legislation,' he added.

But Reding warns that members of the European community must work more closely with countries outside the EU, where most spam originates. 'We are working on co-operation with third-party countries both bilaterally and in international forums such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Telecommunication Union,' she said.

Recent research by anti-junk mail organisation Spamhaus estimates that 75 per cent of all email traffic arriving at ISPs' mail servers is sent by spammers or from hijacked computers.