RUTH Kelly has called for more to be done to encourage women to get into Parliament.

The Bolton West MP was speaking after a report showed that Britain was only 33rd in an international league table of women MPs -- behind Third World countries such as Cuba, Tanzania and Costa Rica.

The Equal Opportunities Commission report said the presence of only 106 women MPs out of 659 in Britain, or 18 per cent, showed Parliament was still unrepresentative.

All-women shortlists, used for some seats in the 1997 election, have since been declared illegal but the Government has pledged to change laws to allow more "positive discrimination".

Ms Kelly, who has been at the forefront of efforts to create a more family-friendly House of Commons, said: "While we now have more than 100 women MPs in Westminster, we obviously need to do more.

"There is a need to ensure that Parliament becomes more representative of the population, not just with regard to women but also other groups such as ethnic minorities and those with disabilities.

"I am pleased the Government has taken this on board and understand that legislation is being prepared to allow political parties to make positive moves to increase the representation of women in public life."

She added: "Britain's low ranking in this report is not surprising because many of the countries above us already operate policies designed to promote the selection of female candidates."

Mary-Ann Stephenson of the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality, said: "The reason there are so few women in Parliament is not because they aren't good enough to succeed.

"It is because the discrimination they face at local level means they do not get a chance to try."

In this year's General Election, women MPs won 106 seats -- 11 less than in 1997, when a record number were elected.

Scandinavia has the highest proportion of women MPs. Top is Sweden (47 per cent), followed by Denmark (37.4 per cent), Finland (36.5 per cent) and Norway (36.4 per cent).