NEW YORK, Dec. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday that the city's major crimes reached new historic lows in 2004 and New York remained one of the safest large cities in the United States.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday that the city's major crimes reached new historic lows in 2004 and New York remained one of the safest large cities in the United States. £¨Xinhua/file photo£©

    "We've had another successful year providing safety and security to New Yorker by driving down crime another 5 percent citywide and once again we are ranked the safest big city in America," said Bloomberg while announcing the latest crime statistics with police commissioner Raymond Kelly.

    According to FBI's Uniform Crime Index Report released Monday, New York City witnessed another significant drop of 5 percent in 2004 in overall crime citywide, or a decline of 9 percent compared with two years ago. The city is also on course to have fewer than 600 homicides by year's end for three years running.

    New York City's violent crime rate is down 3.6 percent so far this year compared to a nationwide reduction of 2 percent. Property crime dropped by 1.4 percent in the city during the first six months of the year, according to the report.

    Of the 25 largest cities reporting to the FBI, New York City had the lowest crime rate during the first six months of 2004. Of the 217 cities reporting with populations greater than 100,000, New York City was ranked 203rd, between Alexandria, Virginia and Ann Arbor, Michigan. Enditem