The prime minister has vowed to take further action if the government's current clampdown fails to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Appearing before the Commons liaison committee on Tuesday morning, Tony Blair said the government had already introduced on-the-spot fines and anti-social behaviour orders.

He said there were areas where the police and local authorities were working together to tackle low-level crime and improve community safety.

Blair also told MPs they should get involved in the government's drive to tackle anti-social behaviour, saying that it "should be something that any person from any party can agree with".

"I am very willing to go back and legislate again on this anti-social behaviour if there are problems with the way the law is being used, because it is a big, big issue for people," he vowed.

Community cohesion

The prime minister also defended his government's record on promoting social cohesion.

Blair accepted that some problems remain in community relations.

He said that the fight against terrorism had introduced a "new dimension" into the task of ensuring that ethnic minority communities do not feel socially excluded.

Blair admitted that some policies could "appear to conflict" with the need to promote social cohesion.

And he said that community relations could only be judged "area by area", although there has been no repeat of the 2001 riots experienced in several northern cities.

"In some respects I think they are better... we haven't had those disturbances," he said.

"But the controversy over terrorism, and we heard all the controversy over the stop and search and so on, has put a new dimension of this into the equation which I think is difficult."

He said the government was working to bring different local communities together.

"But it does depend enormously on the willingness and good efforts of the people on the ground in each individual community," Blair added.

"So my assessment would be that I think it probably in some ways is better than it was, but on the other hand I think there is this new dimension that we need to watch."