Police chiefs have set out a new strategy to deal with prostitution.

Gloucestershire Chief Constable Dr Tim Brain has published a national strategy to improve the way officers deal with the sex industry.

It rejects the creation of officially-sanctioned red light zones, saying there is not enough proof from other countries that they have proved a success.

The plan also says that a change in the law would be required to allow such a policy to be implemented.

"The status quo is not an option, with the numbers of street prostitutes rising as a result of drug addiction and the number of off-street brothels fronted as massage parlours or saunas also increasing," said Dr Brain.

"Trafficking of women into the country from other parts of the world is growing, as is its links with organised crime.

"It all represents misery and exploitation of too many women."

He added that "for too long policing prostitution has been a neglected area of not only policing priority but also public priority".

The report said that the number of women cautioned for street prostitution had fallen from 3,323 in 1993 to just 732 in 2001.

But at the same time there were fears that prostitution was a "growing problem".