BLAIR VOWS TO TACKLE DRUG CRIME

Stringent new measures to tackle the drugs menace, under which all people
arrested for criminal offences will face mandatory drug testing, were
promised yesterday by Tony Blair. In a clear admission that the Government
has failed to meet voters' concerns on crime, Mr Blair put drugs and law
and order at the heart of his priorities for the remainder of new Labour's
first term in Government.

The issue had been ducked for too long, he declared, as Labour's centenary
conference opened in Bournemouth.

Mr Blair said that suspects found to be cocaine or heroin users would be
refused bail in virtually all circumstances to stop them committing further
offences. And offenders on probation would be subjected to random drug tests.

The moves come after new evidence reached the Government of the link
between drugs and other crime. Mr Blair said all governments had failed to
wake up to the scale of the crisis.

The measures will be included in a new Crime and Justice Bill which Mr
Blair said would be the centrepiece of the Queen's Speech opening the new
session of Parliament in November.

A Home Office study of five cities found that 61 per cent of all people
arrested had drugs in their system. Cannabis was the most common drug but
18 per cent tested positive for opiates and heroin and 10 per cent for
cocaine and crack.

Nearly half of those arrested said their habit was connected to the crime
they were accused of committing, and said they spent at least a third of
the proceeds of crime on drugs.

Mr Blair, in a pre-conference interview with BBC's Breakfast with Frost,
declared that he, like other people, was "petrified" about drugs because of
worries about his own children. "I'm petrified about drugs and in respect
of my own children and other people's children drugs will be a main feature
of the new Bill."

"We will be looking at some of the key issues that we've ducked, all
governments for far too long." Mr Blair will also announce today that
criminals will be forced to undergo compulsory DNA tests. The results will
be used to build a comprehensive computer database of all known offenders,
enabling their unique "genetic fingerprints" to be easily identified from
forensic evidence found at crime scenes.

Mr Blair regards the setting up of a DNA library as "a real weapon in the
war against crime".

"The potential importance of DNA technology is only just beginning to be
understood," he said.

The Prime Minister unveiled one of the keynote announcements of his
conference speech tomorrow as he tried to stamp out weekend reports that he
expected to serve three terms, and in so doing had killed off the
leadership ambitions of Gordon Brown.

He denied the reports and, anxious to avoid any suggestions of a rift with
the Chancellor, delivered warm praise for Mr Brown, even suggesting that he
had all the qualities to be a "great Prime Minister".

As Labour began its first conference in Bournemouth since Neil Kinnock's
antiMilitant speech in 1985, there were further signs of growing government
tension over the euro. Peter Mandelson joined Robin Cook in giving warning
of the financial and diplomatic penalties to Britain of staying out of the
single currency for too long.

At the same time, however, Mr Brown insisted that any decision on the euro
would be an economic one, in spite of Mr Cook's warnings of the political
pitfalls.

Inside the conference hall Mr Blair faces trouble this week from the
unions. He is at risk of defeat when they oppose what they see as his move
to water down the European Union working time directive on the 48-hour
week, and to break the Post Office monopoly on delivering letters costing
less than one pound in postage.