TEHRAN, Aug , 2001 (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have arrested members of a prostitution ring engaged in smuggling young girls to the United Arab Emirates, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

The gang, led by a 50-year-old woman in southwestern Iran, sought young girls to sell into sex-slavery to customers mainly in Dubai, the conservative daily Abrar said.

The woman, identified only by her first name as Fariba, her daughter and other ring-members were arrested by agents of the Intelligence Ministry earlier this week.

In a similar case reported by the official IRNA news agency, a court began trials last month of four women charged with selling girls aged between 13 and 17 to Arab customers in the UAE for sex.

Cases of runaway girls, mostly from broken families, becoming victims of prostitution rings, human trafficking gangs and murder have drastically increased in Iran over the past years, IRNA said.