European Union nations agreed Friday to better coordinate efforts to curb child pornography and other illegal content on the Internet.

Jacques Barrot, the EU's justice and home affairs commissioner, said EU justice and interior ministers backed proposals to set up a Europe-wide alert system to better hunt down perpetrators responsible for putting abusive pictures and videos online.

"It will enable EU member states to exchange information more effectively and tackle this serious crime," Barrot said.

French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who chaired Friday's talks, said the plan would see the EU's policing and serious crime agency Europol take charge to coordinate alerts.

Under the system, national authorities would be linked to a European data alert system that will spread national notifications to all 27 EU countries when illegal Web sites and their operators are found.

Europol, based in The Hague, Netherlands, will also run a special site where the public can report illicit content.

The aim is to ensure that illegal Web site operators do not escape to another EU country undetected, Alliot-Marie said.

"If we do this together we will be more effective," she said.

The EU's justice and interior chiefs have focused more attention of late to fighting cybercrime, which EU officials have now listed as priority.

The bloc has set up a special cyber security agency to coordinate European efforts to protect computer systems from terror threats and hackers.

That agency deals mostly with efforts to counter attacks aimed at crippling the Internet and committing identity theft and fraud.