In a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Blunkett announced a �350m package of measures designed to "modernise the comprehensive principle", which he said would address the particular problems facing inner-city schools.

BBC Education Correspondent Sue Littlemore: "Tony Blair shares parents' frustrations"

Announcing special tuition for the brightest 100,000 inner-city pupils, Mr Blunkett promised that children from deprived backgrounds would now have access to the extra support already enjoyed by children from wealthier families.

The use of "setting", in which pupils are divided into ability groups for some subjects, is also to be encouraged, said Mr Blunkett, in another attempt to stretch the more able pupils in the comprehensive system.

The Excellence in Cities initiative announced by Mr Blunkett will target resources at 445 schools in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and Rotherham, with the aim of ensuring that social deprivation will not stop educational achievement.

David Willetts says the government is contradicting its own policies

"It means shifting the focus decisively from the institution to the individual, irrespective of geography or birth, so that every gifted pupil will be stretched and special needs met," Mr Blunkett said.

There will be extra assistance for disaffected pupils, with all the targeted inner-city schools having access to specialist units for disruptive youngsters.

Mentoring, in which an adult offers individual pupils advice and guidance, will be used more extensively to encourage young people to stay in education: �17m will be provided to ensure that all secondary pupils who need a mentor will have one.

Mr Blunkett told the House of Commons that the number of specialist schools, which provide centres of excellence in areas such as information technology, languages or the arts, would now be increased to 800 by the year 2002.

There is also to be a five-fold expansion in 'beacon schools', which provide an example of excellence for neighbouring schools. There will now be 1,000 of them by 2002.

Mr Blunkett also announced that there would be 40 more Education Action Zones, in which groups of schools are encouraged to work with business and the local community on innovative ways to raise standards.

Mentoring will provide individual support and advice for pupils

The School Standards Minister, Estelle Morris, has been given special responsibility for education in the inner-city and will oversee an acceleration in inspections of local authorities in deprived areas.

There will be extra checks on the worst-performing schools, with the lowest 5% in performance tables being subjected to monitoring every six months.

The problem of a high turnover of teaching staff is also to be tackled, with plans for "enhanced retention packages" to encourage teachers to stay in inner-city schools.

University summer schools

In another expansion of an existing policy, Mr Blunkett announced there would be pre-university summer schools, to prepare 16 and 17-year-olds to apply for places in higher education. This follows the setting up of summer schools for pupils between primary and secondary level.

However the Shadow Education Secretary, David Willetts, was critical of what he claimed were the contradictions in the goverment's policy.

While schools have been stopped from selecting by ability and "grammar schools are under threat ... they suddenly come up with this scheme for selecting more able pupils in inner-city comprehensives", said Mr Willetts.

"Why is this form of selection by ability being imposed while all existing forms are being banned?"

Nigel de Gruchy has attacked the proposals for gifted pupils as "hare brained"

Mr Willetts described the scheme for giving extra lessons to gifted pupils as "hare brained", a phrase also used by the General Secretary of National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, Nigel de Gruchy.

"Nothing can hide the fact that the scheme is ill-conceived and totally misdirected. If its aim is to reassure middle-class parents and to halt the flight from the inner-city comprehensives, it is 30 years too late," he said.

Grammar schools by the back door

Mr de Gruchy also accused the government of seeking to re-introduce grammar schools.

"Modernisation is a euphemism for the back-door re-introduction of grammar school selection," he said.

Doug McAvoy: "Consistent approach would benefit youngsters at both ends of the spectrum"

But Doug McAvoy, General Secretary of the biggest classroom teachers' union, the National Union of Teachers, cautiously welcomed the idea.

"We have supported specialist schools, provided they were open to all pupils, not simply pupils who happened to get a place in them," he said.

There was a mixed response from the National Association of Head Teachers, who said the announcement "falls short of the really coherent strategy which is desperately needed".

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers said the scheme should not be dismissed out of hand, but added: ""It is a shame that the prime minister fails to recognise the already considerable efforts that teachers make - many, for example, already work unpaid, outside school hours to hold subject surgeries for pupils."

The Liberal Democrats welcomed the support for gifted pupils, but argued that the extra help should be extended to all such pupils and not only those in the inner-city.