Stop-and-searches on Asian people have hugely increased

The number of searches of Asians under terror laws rose by more than 300% to nearly 3,000 in 2002-03, the Home Office said.

Muslim leaders said the figures suggested their community had been targeted since 11 September 2001.

A Stop and Search Action Team will look at "disproportionality" in stops of ethnic minorities and other issues.

The team, which will include community representatives, will look at how the police were using the stop-and-search powers and will also produce a guidance manual for all police forces.

From next April forces would be required to record the reason for all stop and searches.

A spokeswoman for the prime minister said Tony Blair was concerned with how stops and searches were being carried out.

"Our commitment to race equality is as strong as ever," the spokeswoman said.

"This imbalance is unacceptable and that is why the Home Office has set up this new unit."

The total number of stop and searches under the Terrorism Act 2000 in England and Wales more than doubled in 2002/2003 from 8,550 to 21,577.

And total stop and searches - including those under terror laws and those under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act - amounted to 869,164.

INCREASE IN OVERALL SEARCHES Black: 38% Asian: 36% White: 17% Source: Home Office Full figures since 1997

This was a rise of 22% on the year before and the highest level since 1998-1999.

Muslims groups have criticised the rise in searches of Asians, saying it showed prejudice and "Islamophobia" were evident.

One campaign group, the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said the level of concern was now so high that its entire print run of 500,000 legal advice leaflets had already been snapped up.

Home Office Minister Hazel Blears said the rise had to be seen in the context of the rise in the total number of searches.

"This is obviously the result of the heightened threat from terrorism since 2001 and also there are very many more police-led operations," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

She refused to be drawn on whether prejudice played a part in the high number of Asian searches, but acknowledged that the proportion of Asians being stopped was too high.

It seems a very clear message that certainly prejudice does play a part Iqbal Sacranie Muslim Council of Britain Muslim anger over stop and search

"I am very concerned about the undermining of confidence in the criminal justice system as a whole by stop and search, and that is why I am saying that we need a sea change in the way that we deal with these issues.

"It has to be used in an intelligence-led way and it has to be used to prevent crime. It can't just be used to harass people."

The Association of Chief Police Officers said the searches were "an emotive issue" and that police interventions "need to be intelligence-led, justified, and consistently professional".

It emphasised that while figures showed disproportion, that did not mean discrimination was operating.

"We will continue to seek improvement in operational practice whilst working with government on the review of statistics and context," said Matt Baggott, ACPO lead on Race and Community relations and Chief Constable of Leicestershire Constabulary.

Muslim Council of Britain secretary-general Iqbal Sacranie said the practice of stops and searches needed to be reviewed.

He told Today: "It seems a very clear message that certainly prejudice does play a part, and the community can perceive that this can be part of Islamophobia."

Labour peer Lord Ahmed, who has been stopped and searched twice at Heathrow Airport, said many incidents were nothing more than "complete harassment" of an individual because of their religious dress.

"Anti-terror policing has to be based on intelligence. They don't have that intelligence because people are simply being stopped because of the way they look."