CHILDREN in Bolton as young as six and seven are being bullied into handing over their prized mobile phones -- by other children.

Police say that phone thefts have soared by a third in the past year with a significant proportion involving children stealing from other youngsters.

In the Astley Bridge area alone, 275 phones have been stolen in the last four months.

Although statistics are not yet available for other areas of the town, the figure is believed to be similar.

Last year, more than 900 phones were taken following a series of street robberies, break-ins and thefts compared with about 600 for 1999.

In response, police have organised a phone marking programme to speed up the recovery of stolen handsets.

There has also been a call for mobile phone makers to introduce better security safeguards in the handsets to discourage thieves.

Sgt Jim Winwood of Astley Bridge police station said: "Mobile phones are easy to steal because they are so small and their value can be high. The best deterrent would be technological safeguards built into the phones but the phone marking method which we are promoting will help."

In April, Astley Bridge police had 68 reported mobile phone thefts compared to 48 in April, 2000. In May, June and July there were 70, 72 and 65 thefts respectively, compared to 42, 46 and 46 in 2000.

News of the increase follows a report by Home Office minister John Denham a month ago in which he stated that robberies by children on children were keeping Britain's crime statistics high.

He backed a call for mobile phone companies to do more to render phones useless immediately after being informed of a loss.

Sgt Winwood said: "We have been offering the phone marking service for a while and it is proving popular. At Crompton Place we marked 700 phones in four days. We are also visiting schools. Stealing -- or taxing as some children refer to it -- is something we are looking into as part of a wider problem and we have an officer who visits schools as part of the marking programme."

Some phones, such as the popular Nokia 3210, can sell on the black market for £40 -- half the original cost. Yet some phones, especially those with WAP capabilities, sell for much more.

Thieves remove the SIM card, which stores details of the phone user, before selling the handset.

People buying the stolen phone will insert the SIM card from their existing older model phone, saving them the hassle of changing their number and contract when upgrading the phone.

The phone marking scheme was due to take place at Asda, Middlebrook, today. Tomorrow, they will be at Morrison's in Mornington Road and on Friday they will attend Horwich Leisure Centre. Each session runs from 10am to 4pm.