A ten-year-old Johannesburg girl is believed to have become the youngest female to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest point, the Citizen newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Kate Hamilton decided to conquer the 5,895-meter Uhuru Peak after her parents, Mike and Elma, clibmed Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania two years ago.

"When we got back, Kate said she wanted to climb the mountain and Elma and I said 'not a damn'," said Kate's father who eventually accompanied her on the climb.

"But although there is an informal age restriction of no under- 16s on the mountain, two American boys aged nine climbed to the summit a while ago, and Kate kept up the pressure on us."

Kate said: "I always wanted to break some sort of world record. The youngest girl to have climbed Kilimanjaro was 11, so I wanted to do it before my 11th birthday, which is on January 5."

She trained by walking an average of 40km a day.

"I couldn't prepare her for the altitude and the weather, but I could make sure she was fit," said Mike.

Once on "Kili" she found the first couple of days easy. "But later on it got very hard to breathe," Kate said.

On their final ascent, the barent and icy conditions took their toll on the girl ad she developed frostbite.

When she reached the top Kate's father said he felt a mixture of pride that she had made it and the shame that he had pushed her so hard. He said he had sent an e-mail to the Guinness Book of Records but Kate's record had not yet been independently verified.

The girl's next challenge is to climb Africa's second highest mountain, 5,195-meter Mount Kenya. (Xinhua)