The nascent International Criminal Court (ICC) is struggling to gain the intelligence required to pursue claims and wants the help of businesses and their lawyers, the court's chief prosecutor told delegates at the International Bar Association's anti-corruption conference in Paris last week.

Luis Moreno Ocampo told the conference that states are one of the entities that can bring claims before the court.

But he said those states where claims are most likely to be relevant may not be in a position to bring them to the ICC's notice.

He said: 'There is an assumption that the authorities in these states are in a position to bring such claims, and that the police and other forces of law and order actually do respect the law.' Where this is not the case, it is difficult to pursue claims, he said.

Mr Moreno Ocampo added: 'The ICC is like a sophisticated aeroplane.

It can monitor genocide and other human rights violations from above, but has no airport in which to land: either because there is no airport in the relevant place, or the plane is likely to get shot down.'

He encouraged lawyers to co-operate with the ICC by sharing information in relation to places where their clients suffered as a result of corruption.

Mr Moreno Ocampo said: 'An example might be a company in Africa which has bought a concession for a gold mine, but is incapable of exercising the concession because it is the victim of extortion.'

Francois Vincke, the chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce's anti-corruption commission, said: 'If companies can help the ICC by fulfilling their corporate social responsibility duties, and information that they share with it helps to solve its problem of gaining intelligence, that would be a great thing.'

Jeremy Fleming