Couples from the UK, desperate for children, are making a beeline to a tiny infertility clinic in Anand to engage Indian women to give birth to their babies.

For 3,000 pounds they can rent a womb for nine months, go home, then when the woman gives birth return to take the child away, The Mail newspaper reported.

The Akanksha clinic, run by infertility expert Dr Nayna Patel, is pioneering the outsourcing of pregnancy. It is at the forefront of a booming trade in "reproductive tourism" in India, where there is a more relaxed attitude to paying women for pregnancy, a practice banned in many other countries, the report said.

"By some estimates, Indian surrogacy is already a 250 million pounds a year business, and it's growing rapidly," it said.

Dr Patel told the newspaper that she has more than 50 foreign couples from Britain, America, Europe, the Middle East and even Africa and 45 surrogate mothers on her books.

For the surrogate, the money they earn for the service will transform their lives, allowing them to buy a house for the first time or provide an education for their own children.

Yet in order to make such money, many have to lie to their families and friends, telling them they are studying or working away from home, the report said.