South Africa's rhino horn stocks will remain secret due to security fears, amid a poaching crisis that has seen more than 200 animals slaughtered this year, the environment minister said Thursday.

"An inventory of rhino horn that is held by conservation agencies in South Africa has been completed, but due to security risks the Department of Environmental Affairs cannot publicly announce the amount of stocks," said Minister Edna Molewa.

The stockpile was mostly from animals that had died naturally in the bush with some of the horns confiscated in anti-poaching cases.

The amounts and locations were not released due to fears they would be targeted by criminals due to the high black market demand for horns.

Rhino poaching in South Africa has reached crisis levels, with more than 200 animals killed in the first half of the year and 333 wiped out last year.

A feasibility study on legalising the trade and a global market research project are still to be done and should enable the department to determine if unbanning sales would be a way to control the market and prevent poaching, Molewa said.

"We do not have the legalisation of rhino horn on the cards," she added in a written reply to a parliamentary question.

"We are conducting a study which must be scientific and indicate the measures to be taken in protecting our rhino from being poached because of the rhino horn."

The horns are said to fetch tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, to feed an Asian black market for traditional medicine.

In April, South Africa deployed the army to the world-famous Kruger National Park on the border with Mozambique to safeguard the giant reserve's hard-hit rhino population.

Rhino-horn gang strikes again in Belgium
Brussels (AFP) Aug 11, 2011 - Robbers made off with two rhino horns from a Belgium museum, the third such heist in the country in less than two months, prompting official warnings against the illicit trade, Belga news agency said Thursday.

The latest occurred last week in the Africa Museum in the city of Namur when one man in a gang of three made off with a stuffed white rhinoceros head as his accomplices diverted the attention of staff.

Government officials subsequently issued a statement underlining that trade in rhino horns is banned under the CITES international agreement, the 1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Officials warned the trade was on rise, with customs seizing seven hauls of horns last year in the European Union against one or two a year in the past.

"A rumour propagated across Asia claims powder from crushed rhino horn can cure cancer," Anne Vanden Bloock told Belga. "This has greatly increased the worth of the horns recently."

Early last month, thieves nabbed a stuffed rhinoceros head from the Brussels Natural History Museum, while a robber also working with an accomplice stole a rhino head in the Liege natural history museum but was caught and the head returned.

Rhinos are often poached too for their horns, made of keratin and sold on the black market for ornamental or medicinal purposes, particularly in Asia.

The two African species and the Sumatran rhinoceros have two horns, while the Indian and Javan rhinoceros have a single horn.

A rising number of science museums in Europe are being targeted for the horns, which can fetch tens of thousands of euros on the black market.

Europol suspects an Irish organised crime group is behind the spate of robberies that has also hit zoos, auction houses, antique dealers and private collectors across the continent.

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