Domestic abuse victim Mandy Weaver said education is key

It is unveiling its first national strategy and extra funding worth more than �1m over the next three years.

According to official figures, nearly 27,000 incidents of domestic violence are reported to police in Wales during a single year.

Across the UK, nearly a quarter of all recorded violent crime stems from incidents of domestic abuse.

It is thought one in four women will be on the receiving end of violence from a partner at some time in their lives.

The assembly government is launching a national strategy to tackle the problem which it said has been developed with the help of all those agencies who help the victims of abuse.

There will be extra funding for those groups - an increase of �1.1m over the next three years.

Police, health and social services and local authorities will be expected to draw up their own action plans to fit in with the new strategy.

The action plan has been welcomed by Mandy Weaver, whose late second husband beat her and kicked her over a period of six years.

An estimated one-in-four women will suffer domestic abuse

Ms Weaver, of Caerphilly, said: "Whatever you do for education, you need money to do it, unfortunately.

"We want to stop (domestic abuse) going to the next generation.

"Any money that comes in can get workers going into school, changing behaviour."

Experts in tackling domestic abuse held a national conference in Cardiff this month to study how the city has dealt with the issue.

Cardiff is held up as an example of best-practice in dealing with domestic violence, against men as well as women.

Over the past three years, a women's safety unit has cut the repeat victim rate from 30% to 13%.