The world's leading telcos and internet service providers will gather in Geneva next month to discuss the development of an anti-spam framework.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will serve as a forum for governments, regulators and consumer groups.

Because spam is a potential threat to digital services and a "significant and growing problem for users, networks and the internet as a whole", the ITU has insisted that national and international action is necessary.

The ITU said that spam is clogging email, mobile and instant messaging services with hundreds of millions of messages a day and "has grown into one of the major plagues affecting the digital world".

It said that the annual loss in productivity due to spam is estimated to exceed $10bn in Europe and the US alone.

Discussion will cover areas including technical solutions, consumer and small business education and awareness, legislation, enforcement and international co-operation

Anti-spam organisation Spamhaus, which has been invited to speak at the event, indicated that the forum is "a good start". But the company warned that the current laissez-faire attitude by industry and government in the UK and Europe is harming efforts to fight spam.

"Even China [which ranks second in the world for sending spam] is taking a stiffer line than the UK and European states," said Spamhaus' Richard Cox.

"It is interesting to note that in the US, which has weak anti-spam laws, they are so angry that they are enforcing these [laws] and using other computer misuse laws as well.

"Most of the EU is only paying lip service to our anti-spam measures and we need to enforce them and use stiffer penalties."

The ITU summit will take place from 7-9 July.