NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- Indian police said Thursday they will take the lead in cracking down on computer crimes and regulating Internet companies to check gambling and pornography.

The Central Bureau of Investigation will initiate new high-tech legislation, they said at a two-day seminar on computer crimes.

"The telecoms department should have selective restrictions on Internet service providers," K.P.S. Gandhi, director of India's Forensic Research Laboratory, told the concluding session.

CBI officials brainstormed with experts from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and officials from banks and law enforcement agencies at the seminar.

They told reporters the Information Technology Bill, to be introduced in the current session of parliament, would help check computer crime and legalize electronic transactions.

India has been slow to computerize, and large parts of government, banking, insurance and law enforcement still use paper files extensively.

As a result, the police have little information on computer crimes, and even less on how they could be combated.

"Policemen need to learn not only to use firearms but also how to use a computer," said Chakravarty Rangarajan, governor of the state of Andhra Pradesh and former governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

He also called for a law to protect computer data and files, along the lines of Britain's Data Protection Act.

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