Downing Street has stood by the prime minister's pledge to cut by half the number of asylum seekers entering Britain in September.

Refugee groups and opposition MPs had already greeted with scepticism Tony Blair's promise to halve the numbers by September.

You can call it an objective, an aim, a goal Prime Minister's official spokesman

Home Secretary David Blunkett was even reported to have told colleagues the pledge was "undeliverable".

But the prime minister's official spokesman said Mr Blair was "indicating our hope" that numbers of asylum seekers arriving in the UK could be reduced by half.

The comment was backed up by the Home Office which said it expected numbers to be halved by September.

A matter of words

Mr Blair, Mr Blunkett and other ministers will be discussing asylum during meetings with Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, on Monday.

On Friday, the prime minister told BBC Newsnight that he wanted asylum seeker numbers cut by 30% or 40% "in the next few months".

He said he thought the numbers "should have" halved by September.

The prime minister's official spokesman said Mr Blair had been merely "summarising" discussion within the government on asylum.

Duncan Smith: Blair offering targets, not real action

Last October there were eight to nine thousand applications and the prime minister was indicating the hope to reduce that by half by September, he said.

Asked if this was a promise, the spokesman said: "The precise words matter less than doing it. The prime minister is galvanising the system - you can call it an objective, an aim, a goal. It is there and we will be held to account."

'Confusion'

Earlier, a Home Office spokesman said Mr Blair's statement was "a longer term objective for years to come".

"The prime minister was highlighting progress that we expect to make as a result of measures in the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act ... that once the Act starts to kick in, then we would expect to see reductions and those would be measured and assessed."

Does the government have a target or a commitment to reduce asylum applications by half by September or not? Oliver Letwin

These comments prompted shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin to describe the whole episode a "state of confusion".

"Does the government have a target or a commitment to reduce asylum applications by half by September or not?"

'Tough' talk?

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesman, said the promise was "probably undeliverable".

"The government should be concentrating on establishing a sane system for the whole of Europe which processes asylum claims fairly, deals with them speedily and returns those who fail in an effective and intelligent way," he said.

"The more we try to make Britain look tough but fail to deliver, the more we lose credibility at home and abroad."

Figures due to be released later this month are expected to show asylum applications reached a record 100,000 last year, with 92,000 the year before.

Scepticism

The Sunday Telegraph said that of these, 82,000 were turned down and ordered to leave, but did not - and so could be assumed to be living illegally in Britain.

The paper also said it had seen unpublished Home Office figures showing that 329,714 refugees have been ordered out of Britain over the past 13 years, but have failed to leave. Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith had said Mr Blair would not be able to meet his promise unless he set "certain quotas".

Keith Best, chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service, had called the promise "pie in the sky" and unachievable.

Harriet Sergeant, who wrote a report on asylum for the right-wing think tank the Centre for Policy Studies, said Mr Blair would cut numbers by reclassifying refugees.