FRANKFURT: The number of fake euro banknotes seized in the second half of 2009 rose by eight percent from the first half of the year, the European Central Bank said on Monday, a trend that began in late 2007. "In the second half of 2009 a total of 447,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation," an ECB statement said.

The rise was slower than in the first half of 2009 however, when the central bank reported a 17 percent jump in the number of seized counterfeit notes.

"The proportion of counterfeits is still very low," the statement said, when compared with roughly 12.8 billion genuine banknotes in circulation.

As is often the case, fake notes of mid-level value were the most often seized, with 20-euro (29-dollar) bills representing 47 percent of the total.

Almost all of those found, 97 percent, comprised of 20-, 50-, and 100-euro banknotes, and more than 98 percent of all counterfeit notes were found within the 16-member eurozone.

Spanish police said on August 21 that they had recovered almost nine million euros worth of fake 500-euro bills, a European Union record for notes of this denomination.

Other crackdowns on counterfeiters included the arrest of two people by Italian police in late July as officials raided a money factory in the southern Campania region and seized seven million euros in fake 50-euro notes.

Four others were apprehended in Bulgaria, police said on October 1, and 111,750 euros in fake 50-euro bills were recovered.

In mid-October, Polish police arrested four Cameroonians who were French residents after finding fake 50-, 100-, 200- and 500-euro notes and material used to counterfeit money in the southern city of Czestochowa.