Sex has a significant growth potential on mobile phones, Playboy partner says.

Pin-up pictures from adult entertainment company Playboy will be available for download to mobile phones next year, executives from one of the company's partners said on Wednesday.

"We'll be offering everything you can imagine related to Playboy," Mika Eriksson, CEO of Wireless Entertainment Service Finland (WES), told Reuters. "You'll be able to download Playmates and other pictures for a small fee."

WES was picked on Wednesday to help Internet site Playboy.com, a majority-owned subsidiary of Playboy Enterprises, put selected content online as mobile phone and Internet technologies converge.

Eriksson said sex has a significant growth potential on the mobile phone space as telecom operators are keen to find new services consumers are willing to pay for.

"On the Internet sex is the only thing that has been profitable and it's one area we're focusing on," he said.

Telecom operators are expected to switch on the service in the first quarter of next year, with Belgium first to start up. Playboy entertainment will soon be available in other countries, including Britain and the United States.

At first consumers will only be able to download black-and-white pictures because most handsets do not have color screens, but more advanced phones capable of handling high-quality color pictures and images are expected on the market in late 2002.

"Our research shows that we can anticipate approximately 1 million downloads in the first year alone," Larry Lux, president of Playboy.com, said in a statement.

Parent company Playboy is best known for publishing its eponymous magazine, launched almost 50 years ago. It has also branched out into online media and digital television.