Northumbria Police says additional patrols are being mounted on Friday and Saturday nights in known hot spots.

The force says it has identified five places where about 70% of offences are committed in the city.

The move follows the Tony Blair-backed "Party's Over" campaign, which featured a zero tolerance approach to drink-fuelled street crime.

Insp Steve Flaxen said: "There has been a culture of excessive drinking in the North East, which frequently manifests itself in violence and disorder.

'Staggering around'

"We have identified five locations around the city, where almost 70% of all offences occur and we are deploying pairs of uniformed officers on those streets each Friday and Saturday evening between 1800 and 0300 GMT.

"It there are groups of young people staggering around, we will approach them, speak with them and then deal with any offences that may arise.

"We are looking to take an approach where we give people advice, help if they need it and give them warnings about the consequences of any disorderly behaviour.

"It is a form of early intervention without arrest, but with the strong possibility that people who are offending will be arrested and arrested quickly before any situations get out of hand."