The Brazilian government has announced a 120-point plan to combat crime amid a wave of public concern about rising levels of violence.

The plan, announced in Brasilia by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, includes a six-month ban on the licensing of firearms.

There will also be an expanded role for the army in patrolling frontiers, and extra money for training and equipping state police forces.

Brazil has one of the world's worst murder rates, four times higher than that of the United States.

Dramatic

Ministers have spent months preparing the national security plan and, with violent crime spiralling out of control, most Brazilians feel it comes not a moment too soon.

The six month ban on the licensing of firearms is the most dramatic measure.

This is intended as a prelude to tougher gun legislation due to be voted on in the next few months.

The plan also involves unprecedented federal intervention in local police forces.

Beefed up

State governors will have to demonstrate falling crime rates if they are to receive extra money, but this is not the root-and-branch police reform so often demanded by crime experts.

The federal police who deal, among other things, with Brazil's borders, are also being beefed up.

They will receive 2,000 extra personnel, partly to help in the war on illegal drugs.

Controversially that battle is to be joined by the army, although it is unclear how far this new role for the armed forces is to go, and the government has resisted calls from some politicians to put soldiers on the streets to fight crime.