In a report which accused the World Bank of failing to stem the problem of illegal logging, Greenpeace said over 15 million hectares (37 million acres) of rainforest had been granted to the logging industry since a moratorium was agreed by the country's government in May 2002."

The group's report, "Carving up the Congo," also accused international logging companies of deception and intimidation to get timber.

In exchange for timber worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, logging companies are giving communities gifts such as bags of salt and crates of beer worth less than 100 dollars and promising to build schools and hospitals.

"These promises are rarely fulfilled and there are reports that intimidation tactics are used against people who try to protest," Greenpeace said.

"In a context of corruption and poor governance in the DRC, the World Bank's attempts to reform the forestry sector are currently failing to control the expansion of logging," it added.

Of the 60 million people in the DRC about 40 million depend upon the rainforests to provide essential food, medicine and other non-timber products along with energy and building materials.

And the forest is criticial for the survival of wildlife including gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, the report said.

Meanwhile, the World Bank has acknowledged that over the last three years not a single penny paid in taxes by logging companies has reached local communities to provide essential services like schools and hospitals.

"This leaves these people not only without the forest that provided their food, shelter and medicine, but without the benefits they had been promised, Greenpeace said.

The environmental group also said that it feared a review of logging authorisations, initiated by the World Bank, would end up validating illegal permits granted to some companies.

"Greenpeace has investigated the actions of most of the major logging companies whose contracts have been submitted to the legal review.

"Our findings expose serious lapses of governance, a massive lack of institutional capacity to control the forestry sector, widespread illegalities and social conflicts, as well as clashes with established conservation initiatives," it said.

Greenpeace said that, according to a review of the 156 contracts, 107 were signed after the May 2002 moratorium.

And nearly half of the 156 titles are in intact forest landscapes which are critical for carbon storage and very significant for wildlife protection.

Because comprehensive maps are not publicly available, the location of 13 contracts covering 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) -- an area the size of Kuwait -- cannot be determined, it said.