Venables, 27, and Robert Thompson abducted and murdered two-year-old James in February 1993.

Venables was released from custody in 2001, but he has been recalled following the breach.

A spokesman said: "We can confirm that Jon Venables has been recalled to custody following a breach of licence conditions.

"Offenders on licence are subject to strict conditions; if they breach those conditions they are subject to immediate recall.

"There is a worldwide injunction in place that prohibits any reporting including reporting on the internet, that could identify him or his location."

Details of the nature of the breach have not been released.

Venables and Thompson were aged 10 when they embarked on a crime that stunned the world.

On February 13, 1993, they abducted James from a shopping centre and killed him on a railway line.

The toddler's battered body was found by children playing on a freight railway line 200 yards from Walton Lane police station, Liverpool, and more than two miles from the Strand shopping centre.

Days later Venables and Thompson were arrested in connection with the murder of James, and later charged. They were the youngest to be charged with murder in
the 20th century.

In November that year, they were convicted following a 17-day trial at Preston Crown Court and ordered to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, the normal substitute sentence for life imprisonment when the offender is a juvenile.

Infamous CCTV images released at the time of the crime showed James being led away by the hand.

The two boys, who were truanting from school, walked James around the streets of Liverpool for more than two miles, stopping occasionally to kick and punch him.

They told adults who intervened that he was their brother.

They left his body on the tracks in the hope it would be destroyed by a train.

The toddler had been splattered with blue paint and his battered head lay surrounded by a pile of bricks.

Trial judge Mr Justice Morland told the pair they had committed a crime of "unparalleled evil and barbarity".