Stephen Lawrence was murdered in south London

At Thursday's report launch, in Edinburgh, Mr Taylor could not comment on the question of whether Scotland's police forces were guilty of institutional racism, saying the issue was not specifically addressed.

However, he conceded there were cases where racism did "unwittingly" occur.

The report was ordered by Justice Minister Jim Wallace as part of the Scottish response to the issues thrown up by the inquiry into the 1993 murder of London teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Since then, the race issue in Scotland has been given an extra dimension by the case of Surjit Singh Chhokar, a young Asian whose death in November 1998 was followed by two trials but no convictions.

Recommendations

Mr Wallace said: "This report is one step of many to ensure that the lessons from both cases are learnt throughout the system."

The report made 18 recommendations but did not publicly identify the forces involved.

Mr Taylor found race incidents in Scotland amounted mainly to verbal abuse, vandalism and disorder.

No-one was convicted of Mr Chhokar's murder

But the report acknowledged the "corrosive" accumulative effect on victims who may have been repeatedly subject to racial abuse.

It also called for a more co-ordinated approach to the gathering of local police intelligence.

Mr Taylor said some forces still have a gap between race relations policy and practice, and some rely too heavily on one or more "highly motivated" individual officers.

The quality of interpreting services for victims and others was "variable", and this required a national solution, said the report.

Training manual

Police training in race relation issues was said to be progressing "slowly" from a national perspective, and the confidence of some officers in dealing with ethnic communities may have been hit by a lack of effective training and the high profile of racial issues.

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland said it was encouraged the report had recognised the positive steps already taken and was determined to address work that still needs to be done.

Grampian Chief Constable, Andrew Brown

Speaking on behalf of the association, Chief Constable Andrew Brown of Grampian Police said: "We will be building on existing good work described in the HMI Report which includes better community consultation, more lay involvement, increased staff awareness and improved use of legislation."

In August, police forces across Scotland were issued with a manual to help them improve their handling of racially-motivated crimes.

The 31-page document covers the reporting and recording of racist crimes and how to investigate them, with particular emphasis on the need to reassure vulnerable victims of the police's long-term support.

The manual also includes advice on the general policing of ethnic communities, the recruitment and career development of police officers from ethnic minorities and sections on training and fair practice.