The government will seek to "embed a culture of rights and responsibilities" as an antidote to continuing anti-social behaviour, Tony Blair has said.

Addressing journalists on Thursday, the prime minister said the election campaign had highlighted public concern about a "loss of respect".

"We need to address this problem, not just as a government but as a society," he said.

Blair said he would be returning to the issue with a major speech in the coming weeks.

Impact

He maintained that anti-social behaviour measures were having a "real impact".

"But in reality they were only ever a part of a much bigger picture which was painted for me time and again during the course of the election campaign by members of the public," the prime minister accepted.

"People like a society that is less deferential. They want a society from old prejudices.

"But the loss of deference is very different from the loss of respect for other people.

"A society without prejudice should not be one without rules.

"People are rightly fed up with street corner and shopping centre thugs, yobbish behaviour sometimes from children as young as 10 or 11 whose parents should be looking after them, or Friday and Saturday night binge drinking that makes our town centres no-go areas for respectable citizens, or the low-level graffiti, vandalism and disorder.

"It is the work of a very small minority, it is true, that makes the law abiding majority afraid and angry."

Nostalgia

And the prime minister added that he had "no nostalgia for any bygone era".

"So much of society has changed for the better," said Blair.

"And it is good that people are free to express their views, lead their personal lives in the way that they want to, are less hidebound by old thinking.

"But some things should endure, and one is respect towards other people.

"That is a modern yearning as much as a traditional one."

Blair said some of the causes may be very long term, and some of the solutions may be "difficult".

But he confirmed he was determined to make this issue a central piece of the government's third term agenda.