PHNOM PENH ~ A French man and a US national have been arrested in Cambodia for allegedly sexually abusing children, police said this week.

The Frenchman, identified by police as Jean-Claude Fournier, 64, was arrested last Thursday after being found with two girls aged eight and 13 at his guesthouse room in the seaside town of Sihanoukville, police said.

He was charged Friday with committing indecent acts but has denied the charges, said Be Sivanna, chief of the anti-trafficking and juvenile protection unit in Kompong Som province.

In a separate case, police in northwestern Siem Reap province, the gateway to the famed Angkor Wat temples, said they had arrested a US national named Eric Leonardis Peeters last Tuesday for allegedly abusing two underage boys.

Siem Reap child protection police chief Sun Bunthong said the man was being held in a jail in the capital Phnom Penh pending trial.

Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for paedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003.