MOSCOW, April 9 (RIA Novosti) - The chairman of Russia's State Duma committee on youth affairs said courts should introduce chemical castration for convicted child sex offenders.

"I think that this [chemical castration] could be carried out. It is the right way to deal with a person who has abused a child," Pavel Tarakanov said, also adding that "even tougher" punishments needed to be introduced. He did not give details.

Chemical castration, already practiced in Sweden, Germany, Denmark and the U.S., consists of a course of periodic injections to completely curtail the offender's sex drive.

In a number of countries, chemical castration is offered as an alternative to jail time, but Tarakanov said in his view the injections should be utilized as an additional punishment.

In Russia in October last year, three men were sentenced to between 9-15 years in prison for sexually abusing 136 boys in Krasnoyarsk, in East Siberia.

In 2007, over 2,500 children were killed in Russia, many by previously convicted child abusers.