Law enforcers' lack of internet expertise is leaving them floundering in the fight against cyber-crime.

Interpol chief Raymond Kendall said the growth in fraud and terrorism on the net has overwhelmed police forces and crime fighting organisations.

Mr Kendall, who is stepping down to work with the EU's Fraud Commission, voiced his concerns at a London conference on Wednesday.

He admitted Interpol had not done enough to combat the problem, which has spiralled out of control in the past ten years.

He said: "Although Interpol set up a special group to look at this problem in 1990, we have not developed it very much. We had not expected the explosion to happen as it did."

He said the rise in electronic crime has crippled government law enforcement agencies, significantly hindering their response when offences are committed.

He said most police forces, like Interpol, lagged far behind the private sector in the skills and technological capacity to track cyber-criminals.

"It is expensive if you want to recruit people. This is not an area where you can just take a policeman off the streets and train them in cyber-technology."

He believes private businesses and government law enforcement agencies must work together if the problem is to be solved.

Jonathon Fornaci, of consultancy Atomic Tangerine, agreed governments and police forces are badly equipped to tackle the issue.

He said: "The issue crosses all borders so you cannot have a UK initiative, a French initiative and a US initiative. It has to be all companies and all government agencies working together."

Atomic Tangerine has been working with Interpol since the summer to encourage more co-operation between governments and the IT industry.

Mr Fornaci said companies must make potentially embarrassing disclosures for the sake of greater security.

"Historically, private industry did not want to talk about things. If they had a security breach they did not want to admit they had a problem."