Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to apologise for Britain sending thousands of children to former colonies, officials said Sunday, shortly before Australia's premier is also due to say sorry.

Britain sent more than 130,000 poor children to Australia and other former colonies as part of the programme which ended 40 years ago.

The programme saw many taken without the knowledge or consent of their parents, according to the charity Child Migrants Trust.

Specialist agencies sent them abroad to populate British colonies with "good white British stock," the charity said. Most ended up in state institutions or farm schools.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will make a formal apology Monday to hundreds of thousands of minors who were sent over, including to several thousand Britons.

A British government spokesman said officials had been in touch with the Australian government and an apology could come early next year.

- The apology is symbolically very important - Children's Secretary Ed Balls told Sky News television.

It was a "matter of shame" that the "terrible policy" had continued for so long, he added.

- It would never happen today. But I think it is right that as a society when we look back and see things which we now know were morally wrong, that we are willing to say we're sorry. -

A government spokesman said - We will undertake a period of dialogue with those affected, prior to a formal apology. We plan to make a more detailed announcement early in the new year. -

Under the programme, Britain sent the poor children aged between three and 14 to what were thought would be better lives in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and what is now Zimbabwe.

Rudd will apologise Monday to 500,000 minors placed in orphanages, foster homes and care between the 1930s and 1970s, including some 7,000 sent from Britain.

Kevin Barron, a lawmaker who is chairman of Britain's House of Commons health select committee, told the BBC Brown had written to him in recent days saying "the time is now right" for Britain to apologise.

- It is important that we take the time to listen to the voices of the survivors and victims of these misguided policies - Brown reportedly wrote.