Britain was "now on track" to meet his target of halving asylum claims by September, the prime minister said at his monthly Downing Street news conference.

His comments came as Home Office figures showed a 32% fall in the number of people applying for asylum in Britain in the first three months of this year, down from 23,000 to 16,000.

I does (sic) not regret leaving my country or travelling to England but I regret the way I have been treated Hugues Lounguedi Refugee Read Hugues' story

He said further legislation was being drawn up to tackle groundless asylum applications, the problem of asylum seekers destroying documentation and abuse of the legal aid system.

Mr Blair said the "relentless focus" had been on "cutting the number of asylum applications", with numbers falling by more than 45% since the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act was passed last year.

"So we remain fully on target to meet our pledge to cut applications by half by September. The figures also show that we are removing record numbers whose claims do not succeed," he said.

'Good news'

He dismissed accusations that the drop in asylum claims meant the government had somehow "fiddled the figures".

"They are calculated the same way they have been for years and years and years," he said.

"Just as in the same way when asylum figures were rising no-one said the figures were fiddled, when they are falling, on exactly the same basis, people should take that as good news because it is."

ASYLUM FIGURES IN DETAIL Find out more about the numbers behind the asylum debate At-A-Glance

Mr Blair also denied claims that asylum seekers had been allowed to get visas or work permits "in order to change the figures".

"Employers apply for work permits - work permits aren't given to asylum seekers," he said.

Mr Blair was speaking just hours after Home Secretary David Blunkett angrily described as "liars" those suggesting the figures were massaged by giving more people work permits.

ID cards

Mr Blunkett said the credibility of the statistics was "absolutely vital" in showing what was happening and whether the government's asylum policy was succeeding.

He admitted there was still "a mountain to climb", adding that he hoped the controversial issue of identity cards would be discussed by the Cabinet "shortly".

ID cards would help him learn whether people were working and utilising services legally, he suggested.

Keith Best, from the Immigration Advisory Service, said he feared many people coming to the UK were unaccounted for and "will therefore not be statistics that can be put on the front page of a newspaper".

It may be some form of manipulation has occurred ... I cannot get a straight answer from ministers Oliver Letwin Shadow home secretary

Shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin said he was pleased to see the figures had gone down.

He argued that Conservative policies - such as changes in benefits to asylum seekers - were now being followed by Labour.

But he told BBC Breakfast: "It may be some form of manipulation has occurred ... I cannot get a straight answer from ministers."

He suggested asylum seekers were being permitted to get visas or work permits "in order to change the figures".

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Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Simon Hughes said the drop in claims was unremarkable as numbers periodically rise and fall.

He added: "It is quite wrong to measure success by the number of applicants. Many of those prevented from reaching our shores will have been genuinely fleeing persecution."

As efforts continue to reduce the UK's "pull factors", more than 60 failed asylum seekers were returned to Kosovo on Thursday

The latest asylum figures are still much higher than when Labour came to power in 1997 - when just 30,000 people applied for asylum in the UK.

Claims reached a record 110,000 last year, prompting Mr Blair to announce his target of halving the number seen in October's figure of more than 9,000 applicants.