The home secretary has announced a police amnesty on illegal firearms.

The move was announced after an "agenda setting" summit to tackle soaring gun crime.

The meeting of key figures involved in the government's latest crime crackdown included senior police officers, intelligence gatherers, prosecutors, Customs and immigration officials.

David Blunkett will be hoping that he can repeat the success of the high-profile street crime initiative which is credited with slashing robbery rates by 10 per cent.

"Fighting gun crime is a vitally important issue and we are working hard to tackle the problem," he said.

"We are determined to ensure that we are doing everything possible to stop gun violence, and today's meeting is an important part of that."

The amnesty will be the sixth such move since World War Two.

Ministers said other measures such as giving witnesses to shootings better protection were among the ideas discussed.

Home Office ministers John Denham and Bob Ainsworth joined the "round table" providing top law enforcers with an opportunity to share experiences and coordinate responses to the latest headline grabbing law and order issue.

"This is an opportunity to listen and learn, and to emphasise that only by engaging all those with a part to play can we be successful," said Blunkett.

"This is not a task for government alone but we accept the challenge of our responsibility for leading the necessary debate and on the measures required, to reverse the trend revealed in yesterday's crime statistics."

"We will look at the wider picture and determine how the many agencies involved can work together to stop the problem at its source, as they share their experience of what works."

Ministers stressed that the summit is not a one-off event and will herald a community crusade to "stamp out the scourge" of gun crime.

"It is essential that we support the efforts of community organisations in their vital work to provide an alternative way of life to their young people," Blunkett insisted.

"We must strengthen the voices of those people in urban communities who want to turn their backs on gun and drug culture and make sure they are heard even more strongly."

"This discussion is not a one off. We will draw on the experiences of everyone here today to help us co-ordinate our efforts to stamp out this scourge in society."

The home secretary is pointing to a raft of recent measures as the building blocks for the new initiative.

Ministers have allocated £1.4 million in funding to develop a National Forensic Firearms Intelligence Database - set to come on stream in April.

Last November saw the fight against gun crime made central to the National Policing Plan.

And recent days have seen action towards a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for the illegal possession of firearms alongside new controls on the possession of air weapons and replica weapons.

However, new crime figures published on Thursday showed a 35 per cent rise in gun crimes in 2001 to 2002.

Included in the statistics were a 46 per cent jump in the use of handguns and a 34 per cent increase in the number of armed robberies.

The latest police statistics show firearms were used in 9974 recorded crimes in the 12 months to last April, up from 7362.

Crimes involving handguns have now more than doubled since the 1997 post-Dunblane weapons ban, from 2636 in 1997/98 to 5871 last year - a 46 per cent year on year jump in gun crime.