Despite a drop of about 5 million since 2000, working children number an estimated 122 million in Asia, or 64 percent of the worldwide total, according to the International Labor Organization.

Though the causes of child labor are complex, the U.N. agency says a key problem is that there are too many people who, despite wanting their children in school, either can't afford fees or related costs like transportation and uniforms or would find it hard to get by without the extra income.

In such an environment, many families send their kids to work - in the fields, in factories, selling trinkets on the street or even in dangerous worksites, like mines.

"The problem is the reduction in Asia is not as rapid as it should be," Panudda Boonpala, senior child labor specialist at the ILO, said in an interview. "A large number of working poor means that we have a large number of people who are unable to support children to go to school."

Under the theme of "Realizing Decent Work," government representatives from close to 40 countries and territories as well as workers' and employers' organizations have been meeting this week to discuss issues such as youth employment, migration, globalization, competitiveness and productivity.

Participants in a session on youth employment Thursday watched a short video on child labor, in which children were shown working at a gold mine in Mongolia.

In a report Tuesday on labor and social trends in the region, the ILO said that the number of child workers, defined as being between the ages of 5 to 14, in Asia fell to 122.3 million in 2004 from 127.3 million four years earlier.

South Asia, which includes Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, remains a child labor hotspot, according to World Bank statistics contained in the ILO report.

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