A NORTH-EAST couple with three boys now have the baby girl they desperately wanted - after going to America for treatment which is tightly restricted in the UK.

The unidentified couple are among more than a dozen British families to travel to a clinic in Virginia in order to get around UK legislation.

According to reports in the national Press, six babies have now been born to British couples through a new "sperm sorting" technique called Microsort.

Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is already used in the UK to select the sex of a child if a couple are worried that they may be passing on an illness such as haemophilia, which only harms boys.

But in each case permission from the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is required.

Details of the births were revealed at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, in Seattle.

According to reports, Dr Susan Black, a British doctor who now works at the Genetics and IVF Institute in Fairfax, Virginia, said she had been touched by the case of the North-East couple.

"It was a family who had three boys already, and they very much wanted a girl," she told The Times.

"We were delighted to be able to help them and they now have a healthy baby girl."

So far, more than 300 babies have been born as a result of Microsort treatment in the US, and there are hopes to bring it the UK.

But before that can happen it will have to be approved by the HFEA, which is coincidentally launching public consultation next week on whether gender selection should be allowed in this country.

Dr Kamal Ahuja, a consultant at the Bupa Hospital, in Washington, Wearside, said: "As long as the welfare of the child is not in doubt and approval is obtained I personally would not be against the idea of using some sorting method for the benefit of a couple."