FUZHOU - A man has been given a 12-year jail term for selling three of his own children.

Huang Liang was sentenced Wednesday in a court of Fuqing city in Southeast China's Fujian province after being convicted of human trafficking.

Prosecutors say Huang sold his daughter for 20,000 yuan (3,180 US dollars) to a villager in Longtian county of Fuqing city in May 2009 and gained another 60,000 yuan from selling his son two months later through the same middleman.

The daughter and son were born in 2006 and 2007, respectively, to a woman surnamed Yu with whom Huang had cohabited since early 2005.

The two children were left to Huang to take care of when the couple separated in 2009. Huang came up with the idea to sell his own children due to a tight budget.

Huang played the same trick again at the end of 2009 with a woman surnamed Li. Huang lied that he lacked experience of looking after a little baby and would send the daughter to nursery for one week, only to sell her for 15,000 yuan.

Prosecutors say Huang's actions transgressed morality and should be severely punished according to law.