Blair accused of failure in overseas crime row

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) Prime Minister Tony Blair defended his government from charges of incompetence today after the admission that 280 Britons convicted of serious crimes abroad were not on British police databases.

Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron accused the government of failing to protect the public, saying murderers and paedophiles could be working unchecked with children.

The revelation was the latest in a series of blunders at the Home Office (interior ministry) that has undermined Blair's Labour government and left it trailing in the polls to the resurgent Conservatives.

Blair has said he will step down after a decade in office this year when he is expected to hand the reins to finance minister Gordon Brown.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said on Tuesday that files concerning 27,500 Britons convicted abroad of all types of crime had not been put on the national police computer or sex offenders register.

That figure included 25 rapists, 29 paedophiles and five murderers. ACPO said it meant police would not have offenders' DNA, pictures or fingerprints, calling it ''a totally unacceptable position''.

Blair blamed the problem on foreign states saying that until last year there had been no formal process that obliged European authorities to provide full details of British offenders convicted in their countries.

''That is not the fault of the Home Office,'' he told parliament. ''All those for whom there is sufficient detail, as I understand it, now are on the police national computer.'' The latest embarrassment follows an admission by the Home Office last year that 1,000 foreign prisoners had been set free from British jails when they should have been considered for deportation.

That prompted Blair to sack then Home Secretary Charles Clarke and his successor, John Reid, described the huge department, which covers crime, immigration, security and prison matters, as ''not fit for purpose''.

''The prime minister has confirmed that yet again the government has failed in its central duty of protecting the public,'' Cameron told parliament.

''There are rapists, murderers, paedophiles at large in Britain who could have got through the net and been working with children.'' Reid said an internal inquiry had been set up to look at his department's handling of the issue.

Reuters BDP GC2110