The fight against high-tech crime.

Attorney General J. Reno proposed the creation of laws to fight Internet crime, protect intellectual property rights and extradite criminals Monday at a meeting of Latin American justice ministers. Reno will be in Lima until Wednesday to attend the three-day conference, which aims to strengthen and modernize the region_s judicial systems, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said. Reno told delegates that laws are needed to control international computer crime, since any person with a laptop can commit crimes in another country through the Internet. Peru_s Minister C. Valenzuela said high-tech crimes include fraud, illegal withdrawals from banks, child pornography and the penetration of national security computers. Reno also proposed the region_s police forces and governments establish mechanisms to cooperate and share information in the fight against high-tech crime. On Friday in California, Reno announced plans to create a new high-tech crime center under the jurisdiction of the FBI to combat attacks over the Internet. Reno_s meeting with the region_s justice ministers comes three days after the U.S. State Department released its world human rights reports, which harshly criticized some Latin American judicial systems, including Peru_s, as corrupt and lacking independence from the government. The report angered officials in Peru, and in the conference_s inaugural address Peruvian President A. Fujimori assured delegates that his government was reforming its judicial system.