In a plan intended to fight child labor, a coalition of major sporting goods manufacturers and child-advocacy groups has pledged to combat the sale of soccer balls stitched by thousands of children in Pakistan, which produces 75 percent of the world's hand-stitched soccer balls.

Close to 10,000 Pakistani children under the age of 14 work up to 10 hours a day stitching the leather balls, often for the equivalent of $1.20 a day.

The goal of the program is to wipe out child labor in the industry in Pakistan within 18 months. The effort sets up a $1 million fund that will pay for independent monitors to inspect ball-making sites and for efforts to educate children, some as young as 6, whose impoverished parents push them into stitching balls rather than going to school.

The program represents the first time that all the major manufacturers in an industry have joined with local contractors and children's groups, including Save the Children and Unicef, to eliminate child labor. The coordinated plan is to be formally announced in Atlanta today.

But some children's rights advocates wonder how far $1 million will go in helping the thousands of children who might lose their jobs.

The sports equipment manufacturers pledged not to sell balls made by children after being embarrassed by news reports and pressed by thousands of soccer-playing children and their parents in North America and Europe who wrote letters and signed petitions voicing concern that they were playing with such equipment. Last September FIFA, the international soccer federation, said it would not endorse soccer balls unless manufacturers certified they were not made by children.

The soccer-ball industry is concentrated in the Sialkot region of Punjab province, where children learn from an early age the art of stitching hexagonal pieces of leather into balls. Jeff Ballinger, director of Press for Change, a labor rights group, said, ''The soccer-ball industry is so concentrated in the Sialkot region and child labor is such a hot-button issue that they should be pretty successful in policing it there. But it's possible it could spread to other places in Pakistan, or even other countries.''

To prevent Pakistani contractors from using children in the future, the agreement calls for soccer-ball companies to register the names of all contractors, individual workers and work locations to make it easier for monitors to ferret out child labor.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimates that children make 10 to 20 percent of all soccer balls produced in Pakistan, which produces three-fourths of the 30 million to 40 million hand-sewn soccer balls sold each year worldwide.

According to industry officials, children are paid 60 cents on average for each soccer ball they stitch, usually at the rate of about two balls a day, while adults earn a little more per ball.

Companies taking part in the plan include Adidas, Reebok, Nike, Umbro, Mitre, Brine and 50 others. Corporate officials said the plan might push up the price of soccer balls slightly because of the cost of monitoring labor and the higher salaries for adults.

Dan McCurry, director of Foulball, a group that campaigns against the use of child labor to produce soccer balls, welcomed the companies' pledge, but said, ''It would be obscene to raise the price of the balls, which now retail for $30 to $50, because this program means they might pay stitchers 70 cents a ball instead of 60 cents.''

Because all major soccer-ball companies are involved, children's advocates say the agreement is more forceful than one in which hundreds of rug merchants, representing a small minority of the industry, pledge not to sell rugs unless factories first certify that they do not use child labor.

In addition to the sporting goods and rug industries, child labor is prevalent in the making of apparel and surgical instruments in third-world nations.

The partners in the effort say they not only will steer children into education, but will seek to offset the income that families lose from having their children stop working. In addition, they pledge to help place parents or older siblings in jobs or provide them with small loans to start their own businesses.

In this way, the plan is intended to avoid an unforeseen result that arose a few years ago when apparel makers in Bangladesh threw hundreds of children out of work when the companies grew alarmed that the United States would ban imports made with child labor. With the sudden loss of employment, many children turned to even worse jobs, like making bricks or even prostitution.

Reebok and Nike had already pledged to sell only balls made in their own factories, and not ones made by subcontractors. This is expected to make it easier to insure that no child labor is used.

Paul Fireman, Reebok's chairman, said, ''We'd like to see everyone join with us, and although this will sound bizarre in the world of business, we'd rather see the world operate at a better level. And maybe this will spread to other industries.''

The fund to run the monitoring and education program includes $500,000 from the International Labor Organization, $360,000 from Pakistani manufacturers, $200,000 from Unicef and $100,000 from the Soccer Industry Council of America, a trade association.

''The manufacturers aren't reacting to a concern that people aren't buying soccer balls,'' said John Riddle, president of the United States Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. ''What they're reacting to is a potential degradation of the value of their brand. They think their brands are important, that their corporate good name is important, and they don't want to see that impaired.''

American consumers may call a toll free number, 888-NO-1-CHILD (888-661-2445) to learn which brands have pledged not to sell balls made with child labor.