Police officers and the army are to be issued with new more accurate and "less lethal" baton rounds in Northern Ireland and Britain.

Home Secretary Jack Straw told the House of Commons on Monday that the new plastic bullets would be used by officers dealing with "threat to life" situations during violent disorders.

The baton rounds will be available for use by the police from June, in situations where they would otherwise be forced to use firearms, he said.

"Used, as it will be, with a new optical sight, the new round is more consistently accurate than the old, and the probability of it causing serious or life-threatening injury has been reduced," he said.

"Although there will be smaller risk of serious injury or death when the new baton round is used, that risk has not been eliminated and the new round, like the old, will be used in situations of public disorder only in accordance with the existing strict guidelines."

Patten recommendations

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said the government was carrying forward the recommendations of the Patten Report on policing change in Northern Ireland.

The report by Chris Patten's Independent Commission on the Future of Policing said there should be investment in research into finding an acceptable, less dangerous, alternative to the present baton round.

Dr Reid said: "A programme on this scale cannot be completed overnight but where we can usefully make changes now we will.

"The government would be delighted if the public order situation improved sufficiently to remove the need to resort to baton rounds at all."

In the meantime, Dr Reid said, the government would ensure every effort was made to find an alternative and to provide the police with a broader range of public order equipment.

"We will continue the search for a safer alternative, but meanwhile we have introduced a round that independent experts have concluded is, on balance, a great deal safer than the existing one."

Dr Reid said changes in the use of baton rounds would include:

An increase in the standard required before an officer is accredited to use baton rounds

A reduction in the number of officers approved to use baton rounds

A requirement to issue a report to the Police Ombudsman on every round used

A review of the police reporting format, taking in to account suggestions made by the Human Rights Commission.

However, Sinn Fein condemned the moves and said baton rounds should be banned immediately.

Gerry Kelly, party spokesman on policing, said: "There can be no equivocation on this issue. Plastic bullets have to be banned from use."

He indicated it would be another issue on which Sinn Fein's support for the new policing service being constructed in Northern Ireland would depend.

"Any police service that trains its personnel in the use of this weapon or is prepared to use it cannot expect to win the support of nationalists and republicans," he said.