Doreen Lawrence received the OBE for her campaigning work

Doreen Lawrence was addressing the Unite Against Racism conference in central London, organised to mark the 10th anniversary of her son's death.

She said she had challenged Home Secretary David Blunkett when he told her that race was still on the government's agenda.

Mrs Lawrence: "I had a discussion with the home secretary. The government has lost interest in race and I felt I needed to challenge him over that."

The Home Office later denied the government was no longer interested in anti-racism.

It said in a statement: "We have already implemented the MacPherson agenda and we are now focusing our efforts on tackling hidden and subtle racism and the glass ceilings that ethnic minority people face."

Stephen Lawrence, who was 18, was stabbed to death at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London in April 1993.

'Difficult time'

No-one has ever been convicted of his murder.

Doreen Lawrence and her husband Neville fought a long campaign to expose failings at the heart of the Metropolitan Police.

They said they had been denied justice because they and their murdered son were black.

The results of that campaign culminated in the MacPherson inquiry into Stephen's death.

The inquiry found that the Met was "institutionally racist" and forced huge changes in the way the police investigated racist crimes.

Stephen Lawrence was stabbed by a white gang

Mrs Lawrence told Saturday's conference: "This is a very difficult time for me. I wonder what Stephen's life would be like now.

"He would have graduated and would be practising as an architect."

She said it was still difficult to get the anti-racism message from those at the head of the Met to the officers on the ground.

She also criticised the label "black-on-black crime" and the demonisation of rap music.

The conference heard that racism was increasing.

Figures released earlier this month showed racially-motivated crimes reported by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service rose by a fifth in 2002.

There were 3,728 cases of racially aggravated crime between April 2001 and March 2002, a rise of 20%.

Witnesses intimidated

Of those, 72% were prosecuted and the rest discontinued or dropped when they reached court.

The government said many of the discontinued cases were because witnesses were intimidated or feared reprisals.

The conference also discussed the treatment of asylum seekers.

Kumar Murshid of the National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR) told the conference Islamophobia and demonisation of Muslims was "almost reminiscent of the way Jewish communities were treated in the 1930s."

London mayor Ken Livingstone, Bill Morris of the transport workers union and TUC general secretary-elect Brendan Barber are joining Mrs Lawrence at Saturday's conference.