Ministers have vowed to press ahead with a drive against hard drugs despite criticism of its stance on cannabis.

The Home Office has pledged more resources to tackle crack cocaine use while insisting it has not gone soft on less harmful drugs.

"We are maintaining a sharp focus on class A drugs as these cause the most harm," drugs minister Bob Ainsworth said.

Ainsworth rejected claims that government drugs policy is encouraging the use and supply of cannabis.

His comments came after an International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) report accused the government of sending out the wrong signal to drugs traffickers.

Seeking to put the row aside, Ainsworth announced extra funding for 37 communities to pay for specially tailored services to deal with crack addicts.

The target areas, including parts of Manchester, Bristol and London, will receive the bulk of a significant increase in the Home Office's budget for drug strategies.

The government intends to raise spending from £1.026 billion this year up to £1.5 billion by April 2005.

The money will be put towards addiction treatment, working with young people, and combating drug supply.

Ainsworth said the INCB, a United Nations body, had misrepresented government policy.

He insisted that his department was not legalising the drug, but reclassifying it from class B to class C, having taken expert scientific advice.

"The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs have said that the harm that it does, does not justify it being in class B," he said.

"What this UN body now appears to be saying is never mind that. You shouldn't be confusing people.

"Now we have been very, very clear about what we are doing. We are not legalising cannabis.

"We are proposing to reclassify cannabis. It will remain illegal and it is harmful."

The report said it was "concerned" about the move to downgrade the drug.

Cannabis possession will no longer be an arrestable offence in the vast majority of cases when the Home Office's new rules come into effect in the summer.

INCB president Philip Emafo said this would take Britain out of line with an international consensus on drugs which had taken years to establish.

"It is important that consensus prevails in international drug control," he said.

"No government should take unilateral measures without considering the impact of its actions and ultimately the consequences for an entire system that took governments almost a century to establish."

He added that it "stands to any logic" that the policy would send a bad message to the world.