LONDON, Dec. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- The British government will announce plans next month for a national zero tolerance campaign against street prostitution after shelving plans to introduce licensed "red light" zones.

    The Guardian reported on Wednesday that the proposals are expected to form a key part of the next phase of Tony Blair's drive against antisocial behavior.

    Kerb crawlers will risk having their driving licences confiscated and being named and shamed in local newspapers.

    The paper quoted UK's Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart as saying that it was wrong to regard those involved in prostitution as sex workers.

    She said tough measures were needed to tackle the markets for prostitution. "I'm not tolerant of the view that prostitution is the oldest profession in the world and there's nothing we can do to reduce it."

    "Prostitution blights communities. We will take a zero tolerance approach to kerb crawling. Men who choose to use prostitutes are indirectly supporting drug dealers and abusers. The power to confiscate driving licences already exists. We want the police to use that power more."

    The police are expected to be encouraged to set up safe houses and other schemes to help the women involved get out of the trade.     

    Greater efforts will also be made to close brothels masquerading as massage parlors and saunas.

    Ministers are expected to rule out overhauling the 50-year-old prostitution laws, a decision that spells the end for plans floated by the previous home secretary, David Blunkett, 18 months ago to give local authorities discretion to set up tolerance zones,small licensed brothels and a register of prostitutes.

    Cities such as Liverpool have been pressing hard to be given the power to set up these legal zones. Mactaggart, however, said effective policing rather than an overhaul of the laws was the answer.

    An estimated 80,000 people are involved in the vice trade and 95 percent of those working on the streets are using heroin or crack.

    However, the number of women cautioned for soliciting fell from3,323 in 1993 to 732 in 2000. Middlesbrough is responsible for 25 percent of all national convictions for kerb crawling, and ministers want to see its zero tolerance campaign replicated.

    A national plan to tackle trafficking, to be published in the next few weeks, will focus on prevention and providing help to victims as well as prosecution of traffickers. Enditem