The United States has warned Germany that it must do more to stop an expected tide of sex trafficking for sexual exploitation during the football World Cup.

Thousands of foreign women, many from Eastern Europe, will engage in sex work in Germany during the four-week tournament that begins on Friday, according to some estimates.

The US called Germany a "source, transit and destination country" for sex workers and other exploited people.

The 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report issued by the US State Department did note German efforts to combat exploitation during the World Cup.

"Nonetheless, due to the sheer size of the event, the potential for increased human trafficking during the games remains a concern," the report said.

John Miller, who heads the State Department’s trafficking office, acknowledged at a press conference that the administration was worried about a trafficking spike during the World Cup.

"I have expressed my concern directly to the German ambassador here," Mr Miller told reporters.

"The reason it has become a big issue is that there are reports of thousands of women being transported to Germany for sex during the World Cup.

"All the research and evidence available shows that when you have large flows of women for sexual purposes, there is going to be trafficking. There is a link between prostitution and sex trafficking.

"This has become a big issue in Europe with Swedish ministers, a French soccer coach, the Irish Women’s Federation, all speaking out."

Germany’s sex-industry entrepreneurs have made no secret of their expectation of a boom as hundreds of thousands of visiting fans arrive for the World Cup.

At the four-storey, 40-bedroom Atriums brothel, which opened in Berlin last autumn, Egret Krumeich, the manager, predicted that business - normally 130 clients a day - could double or triple during the 32-nation tournament.

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge