The federal Attorney General's Office said Friday in a statement that "considering the number of victims, the (March 30) sentence should have carried a longer prison term."
The appeal was filed just hours after the sentence was announced, the AG's office said.

Under Mexican law, government prosecutors can appeal acquittals or sentences they deem too lenient.

Succar Kuri, who also faces rape charges, has been behind bars in the Caribbean resort city of Cancun since his extradition from the US in July 2006.

Besides jail term, the tourism magnate was ordered to pay 350,000 pesos ($29,000) in damages to each of seven victims.

While hailing the verdict as "historic," an attorney for one of the victims complained that Succar Kuri's prison term amounts to less than two years for each minor he abused.

The kiddie-porn case dates from 2003, when a group of minors in Cancun filed a criminal complaint against Succar Kuri.

An investigation by Quintana Roo state police uncovered videos and still photographs of sex acts involving Succar Kuri and girls as young as four, while state prosecutors later caught the mogul on videotape confessing to one of his victims.

The businessman fled to the US, but was arrested in Arizona at the request of Mexican authorities.