The British Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised to "restore the liberty of the law-abiding citizen" by cracking down on yob culture.

Launching his flagship Respect Action Plan, Mr Blair said Britain's criminal justice system was not working because it was using 19th century methods to fight 21st century problems.

He promised stiffer on-the-spot fines for anti-social behaviour, along with a raft of other measures including powers to force offenders to do unpaid work and to close down properties which become centres of yobbish activities.

Coupled with this was a range of new programmes to support parents and families - including the creation of a new national Parenting Academy.

Mr Blair said that for too long, the justice system had put protecting the rights of those accused of crime ahead of protecting the rights of law-abiding citizens.

"My view is very clear - their freedom to be safe from fear comes first," he told a summit of social workers at 10 Downing Street.

The Action Plan was attacked by Conservative policy chief Oliver Letwin as "both pessimistic and rather superficial and short-term".

"The causes of what we are dealing with here are much deeper and we are not going to tackle them with on-the-spot fines," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We are talking about children who are growing up in many cases in a way that means they are a problem for themselves and society, and that has to be tackled at the roots.

"What we need is not top-down, immediate action by some Government official or a police officer on the street. We need something much deeper - social enterprise."