POLICE throughout the world will have to re-think their investigative skills to cope with Internet crime, the biggest challenge facing forces in the next century, a conference in Aberdeen heard yesterday.

The warning came from Mr John Hamilton, Chief Constable of Fife Police, when he addressed the 225 delegates at the International Association of Chief Police Officers' Conference.

Last week, The Herald highlighted Mr Hamilton's concerns about the use of the Internet for child pornography, and he expressed these to the conference.

He said he believed the Internet was even helping to draw people into paedophilia who might otherwise not have become involved.

''Child pornography meets the needs of both paedophiles and child molesters but it also has a growing interest in others who have an interest in pornography,'' he said.

''Leaving aside the pornography, use of the Internet is going to require the police service and Customs to re-think their investigative skills and capacity.

''You are talking about old crimes being committed in a new way and new crimes being committed.

''We need to recruit people who have specialist skills, or we need to re-train officers or we need to buy in the skills with the technical knowledge to find their way through this maze. It is a different approach to gathering evidence. It is not like visiting the scene of a burglary or a murder.

''My own view is that the investigation of Internet crime and computer crime is possibly the biggest major challenge to law enforcement in the coming years.

He added that forces needed to co-ordinate their activities and operate across national boundaries for investigative purposes. This, he explained, ''may need a whole new approach in terms of prosecution''.

''If the crime has been committed in one part of the globe and the victim is in another, that might well pose complex legal difficulties to overcome and I think we would be failing if governments don't address this to harmonise legislation.''

The first speaker at the conference, Mr Roger Gasper, director of intelligence at the National Criminal Intelligence Service, agreed.

He said: ''Until there is harmonisation of legislation to overcome these obstacles the global reach of the Internet will mean countries with a perceived domestic tolerance will soon be used as safe storage 'cyber' havens if they are not already doing so.

''We will be in a position where we can take action against an individual who has sold or distributed child pornography in the traditional print form, yet an individual could download and print identical material in his or her own home off the Internet, placed there from another country, and we will be totally powerless.''

Mr Gasper was the first speaker after the opening introductions by IACP president Bobby Moody and vice-president Ian Oliver, who retires as Chief Constable of Grampian Police next week.

Dr Oliver, recently involved in controversy following the revelation of a relationship with the wife of an Aberdeen businessman and external criticism of Grampian's handling of the Scott Simpson murder inquiry, invited the conference to Aberdeen. He had hoped that it would be attended by senior political figures.

However, Ministers made it clear they would not be able to find space in their diaries to attend.