MANILA, May 12, 2009 (AFP) - An Australian doctor has been arrested in the Philippines on charges of child trafficking, police said Tuesday.

Officers acting on a tip-off found the half-naked 47 year-old man with a 12-year-old Filipino boy in a parked car in Manila's Makati financial district on Friday, a police statement said.

A Filipino who allegedly pimped the boy was also detained by the women and children's protection division of the national police along with the Australian, it added.

The World Health Organisation Western Pacific office here said it had no immediate comment to make on local press reports that the detained Australian suspect was one of its staff.

A WHO spokeswoman told AFP a written statement on the matter was to be issued later Tuesday.

Police have asked state prosecutors to file criminal charges against the two suspects, the police statement said.

Sexual exploitation of a person below 18 years of age is punishable by life imprisonment and a fine of up to five million pesos (105,374 dollars) under a law passed by the Philippines legislature in 2003.