A Home Office report into the summer's race riots in northern towns has called for a new concept of citizenship reflecting the UK's many cultures but establishing a "clear primary loyalty" to Britain.

Backing David Blunkett's focus on citizenship, the Cantle report goes further with a call for an oath of allegiance for immigrants to show their "clear primary loyalty'' to Britain.

Arguing that it is "essential to agree some common elements of nationhood" the report says: "A meaningful 'concept of citizenship' needs establishing and championing which recognises the contribution of all cultures to this nation's development throughout its history, but establishes a clear, primary loyalty to this nation," it said.

The 90-page report attacked the absence of debate on race issues and highlighted the separate employment, educational, communal, cultural and voluntary activities of blacks and whites, the report finds that "many operate on the basis of a series of parallel lives".