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Swaziland plans to pay girls about $18 a month for abstaining from sex, according to local reports. 

The programme, reportedly approved by King Mswati III, is intended to reduce HIV transmission in a country with one of the highest HIV transmission rates in the world.

But critics claim the flamboyant ruler - who already has 15 wives - is simply trying to ensure any future brides are disease-free.

Details have to be established about how the girls will be monitored to ensure they are not having sex.

Swazi virgins usually only hit the headlines when tens of thousands of them dance topless before the king at the annual Reed Dance.

Each year the 46-year old, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch chooses a virgin as his new wife from the ceremony.

Last month, he selected a 19-year-old to be his 15th wife.

The programme, reportedly financed by the World Bank, will offer girls a substantial income in a country where two-thirds of the population earn less than 60p a day.

Thabsile Dlamini, a health care worker in the city of Manzini, told South African website IOL: 'The government will pay girls the allowances so they will have money to purchase necessities and can turn down money offered to them for sex.'

HIV transmission rates in Swaziland currently stand at 26 per cent, one of the highest in the world.

But teenagers say the money is not enough to stop them accepting gifts and money in exchange for sex. 

Thandi Tfwala, 17, said: 'A girl could get R200 (£11) for just one sex act.

'You don't know Swazi girls. If they don't get more money, they will keep on doing what they do now.

'Our king will have to go to Cape Town for his brides.'