Kampala- Children are being increasingly decapitated and their bodies cut up in ritual sacrifices, the Ugandan government said Thursday.

"Child sacrifice has confronted the nation with its ferocity, barbarity as well as frequency," Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo told reporters. "It has become a national danger."

The country has been flooded with reports in recent weeks of murdered children with grisly pictures of corpses, often decapitated and their body parts, mostly genitals, cut off.

In one case, a prominent and wealthy Kampala property developer was arrested early last week following reports that he ordered the murder of a juvenile whose decapitated body was pictured on the front pages of the city's tabloids.

Two witchdoctors, a husband and wife who had earlier been arrested for the murder of the 12-year old boy, had told police that the businessman had ordered the death of the child so that he could bury his head under the building he was constructing. The man was charged with murder but denied the charges.

According to police records, four children aged between 9-12 years were beheaded in 2007 and had their their tongues, private parts and hearts cut out.

Since the beginning of 2008, six children have been murdered in a ritual manner, but only three people are being held on murder charges, including one woman.

"The crime of child sacrifice has three parties all of who are liable for severe punishment: Witchdoctors who are responsible for encouraging the crime, the killers who slaughter victims and the individuals who seek services of the killers," Nsaba Buturo said.

"The witchdoctors deserve special condemnation," he added.

The minister said that government is planning tougher legislation by changing the law with special provisions to target the ritual murderers.

"The law is weak. Witch doctors should be punished severely and possibly given life imprisonments," he said. (dpa)