CLUJ, Romania - Iuliana Oros holds her malnourished and listless 10-month-old daughter in her thin arms and weighs her options - keeping the baby or giving her up so the rest of the family has enough to eat.

Baby Liana is anemic and has rickets. The family of five is living on $18 a month in welfare. The landlord has told them to vacate their home - a basement room with a bed and a stove - as he has other plans for it.

Oros, 24, looks into Liana's eyes and says softly, "A child has no price." Still, hoping that talking to a reporter would enhance her chances of getting the baby adopted, she names her terms - her daughter in exchange for shelter for the rest of her family and enough money to keep them alive.

That kind of transaction, however, will soon be punishable by a hefty prison term in Romania under a new law that severely restricts adoptions by foreigners. The measure has drawn loud protests from adoptive families in the United States who say it will make it nearly impossible for Romanian children to get adopted.

Last week about a dozen New Hampshire families pleaded with President Ion Iliescu not to sign the law. But he had already done so, on June 21, and it comes into effect Jan. 1. The families are seeking release of 250 Romanian children to adoptive U.S. families.

The law was adopted under pressure from the European Union, which Romania hopes to join in 2007.

The EU, which had persuaded Romania to suspend international adoptions in 2001, was concerned about allegations of trafficking and corruption within the adoption system. Stories abound of foreigners paying as much as $50,000 to adopt a child.

International adoptions in Romania boomed after television pictures of children living in squalor in orphanages were broadcast worldwide following the 1989 ouster of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who banned birth control and abortion.

Since then about 30,000 children have been adopted abroad. State institutions house about 40,000, some of them abandoned, others orphans.

The law says Romanian children can be adopted only by foreigners who are their grandparents and only if a search for Romanian adoptive families has failed. No child under 2 will be permitted adoption abroad.

And parents who request or take money or other goods in exchange for giving up a child face up to seven years in prison.

Guenter Verheugen, the EU commissioner in charge of the bloc's enlargement, said during a visit to Bucharest last week that he welcomed the new law.

However, U.S. officials say the measure is too inflexible and that Romania won't be able to absorb its abandoned and orphaned children.

Romania has no shortage of people who feel they have no choice but to give up their children. In a country where the average monthly salary is already only $180, there are many families struggling to get by on much less. Welfare is limited and often hard to get.

Mariana Amza, an unmarried, unemployed 18-year-old who gave birth to a girl earlier this month, has put the baby in a state institution until she can better care for her.

Conditions in such institutions have improved since communist times, thanks in large part to private donations, including those from the United States and other countries.

Amza's daughter, Biana Maria, will be ineligible for adoption as long as a parent visits her at least once every six months.

However, that may be difficult as Amza, who currently lives in the Black Sea port of Constanta, said she is preparing to go to Italy, where she has an offer of marriage and a job as a waitress. The child's father refuses to recognize her.

For her part, Liana's mother does not want to leave her child in an institution, believing adoption would provide the girl a better future. She has heard about the new law, but is not convinced it will affect her plans.

"The family doesn't necessarily have to be abroad, but it wouldn't be a bad thing," she said. "I don't know whether I would want to visit her or if it's best to forget her."