Former Home Office minister Barbara Roche has called on the government to investigate the true extent of Islamophobia in Britain.

Roche said hate crime could be a bigger problem than initially thought by ministers.

"If people are worried about being attacked they can't play a full part in society," she said.

The MP - with academics, police officers and policy makers - launched a series of seminars on hate crimes on Tuesday.

She called on the government to establish a hate crime survey to assess the real scale of the problem.

"Some things have been done but we now need to widen the whole thing out to include hate crimes generally," said Roche.

"I don't want to be alarmist but we do need to know the full picture. There has, for example, been a rise in anti-Semitism and I don't think that has been fully picked up."

Her comments come amid growing fears that the war on terror could be stoking up anti-Islamic sentiment in the UK.

While the prime minister has insisted that Britain is not at war with the Islamic faith, tabloid coverage of events has led to renewed tensions.

Roche wants the British crime survey to be extended in order to take into account offences such as racial attacks, religious harassment, homophobic violence and gender-based attacks.