By Charles Mangwiro

MAPUTO (Reuters) - An African lesbian group on Tuesday called on governments in the largely conservative continent to stop treating homosexuals like criminals.

The Coalition of African Lesbians is holding a conference attended by about 100 people in Mozambique to highlight discrimination against lesbians.

"Our main goal is that lesbian and homosexuality can no longer be seen as a criminal offence," the group's director and conference spokeswoman, Fikile Vilakazi, told Reuters.

"You should not be arrested and charged for how you use your own body."

African gay activists accuse authorities in many countries of "state-sponsored" homophobia and tacitly condoning their persecution. In some cases, possible sentences against gays include death by stoning.

Many traditional African societies view homosexuality as abhorrent. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has called gays "worse than dogs and pigs" and his government has banned local gay campaigners from displaying literature at local book fairs.

Thirty-eight of the 85 U.N. members that outlaw homosexuality are in Africa, according to an April 2007 International Lesbian and Gay Association report.

South Africa has adopted a liberal attitude and in 2006 became the first African nation to allow gay marriages, but campaigners said there were problems there too.

"People are facing detention and arrest, three lesbians were brutally murdered in South Africa and several others in Sierra Leone," said Vilakazi, a South African. "We want to get Africans to start talking openly about sexuality in their own way."

The conference, organised together with a gay organisation in Mozambique, will also discuss issues such as AIDS and violence against women.