Twenty-eight children were rescued during the joint operation.

Officers have managed to trace the parents of 12 of the youngsters in Kunming, capital city of southwest China's Yunnan Province. They were reunited on Tuesday.

"It is the happiest moment in my life," said Jin Lanrong when he got his son back. "My family really appreciate the police for helping bring him home."

The remaining children are being looked after in east China's Fujian Province.

They will be returned to their parents as soon as they can be identified, said Kunming police officials.

An investigation was launched after several children were reported missing from residential quarters in Kunming last year, according to Ma Junling, director with the Panlong Branch of Kunming Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Kunming police established a special team with the case also being directly supervised by the Ministry of Public Security.

Officers arrested a suspect, Chang Qiaolan, in Songming County of Yunnan at the end of last year, who is said to be a key member of a child trafficking gang.

Police said it was a well-organized criminal group.

Chang allegedly confessed that after kidnapping children in Kunming traffickers sold the youngsters in the cities of Quzhou in Zhejiang Province and Xiamen in Fujian Province.

In the eight-month investigation Kunming police followed the traffickers' trail through various provinces. Working with Fujian police they seized 11 suspects and rescued 28 trafficked children.

(China Daily April 27, 2006)