The United Nations (UN) is working on a new agreement for the scrapping of metal-intensive mobile phones.

Many mobiles contain precious metals, including platinum, gold and copper, and as a result they are being disguised as household waste to be traded internationally to extract those metals, only for the remaining parts to be illegally dumped.

However, the UN is looking to change this, and is working with the scrap industry and mobile phone makers and operators to expand agreements already in existence in Europe, North America and Japan.

The EU already has a scheme in place, whereby mobile producers bear the burden of the disposal costs, but the UN is looking to develop properly established and maintained disposal routes for the world's mobile industry, so that the disposal of the precious metals such as platinum can be regulated.

A meeting hosted by the UN was held with those from the phone and scrap industries in Geneva ahead of the main conference on the issue due to take place in Nairobi in 2006.