Britain has "turned the corner" in its fight to combat asylum abuse, Tony Blair has claimed.

As figures showed a significant reduction in asylum numbers, the prime minister said that further tough action would follow.

Data released by the Home Office revealed that in the first quarter of 2003 there were 16,000 asylum applications, down on the 23,385 recorded for the final quarter of last year.

In January this year there were 7175 applications, falling to 4255 in February and 4565 in March.

Promising a relentless focus on cutting applications, Blair said the public "rightly expects a robust and fair system that is free from exploitation and able to cope".

"I have gone into this in the most painstaking detail myself. There is no answer to this that will have any validity unless it reduces the number of applications."

The prime minister said his pledge to reduce the number of refugees entering Britain to 4450 a month by September remained "fully on track".

Blair also pledged new action to tackle the problems of groundless asylum decision appeals, the destruction of documents to make fraudulent claims and abuses of legal aid.

"It is obviously a long haul but we will continue to keep up the pressure," he pledged.

"We will continue to bear down on the abuse of the asylum system."

The prime minister added that weekly figures also showed the situation continuing to improve.

Thursday's data showed the number of applications from Iraqi nationals halved in the first quarter, while Somali applications fell by almost a fifth and applications from Afghans were down by 30 per cent to 950.

The introduction of a visa regime for Zimbabwe led to a 61 per cent fall in applications from the country.

However, there were fewer signs of progress in the removal of failed asylum seekers.

There were 2620 deportations of principal applicants in the first three months of 2003, a fall of 10 on the number of removals in the fourth quarter of 2002.

Blair said ministers "do need to do more" on asylum removals. "We are removing many more than we were several years ago," he added.

Ministers say that controversial new laws and plans for induction centres are now deterring those who are not genuinely fleeing persecution.

There have also been tougher measures to secure the Channel Tunnel, with UK border controls moved to France

The issue of asylum has continued to hit the media headlines, and the government is determined to show that they have clear policies to tackle the problem.

A report from the Commons home affairs select committee also warned that the current number of asylum seekers is "unsustainable".

But refugee groups and human rights campaigners have warned that the government's tough approach to the issue risks undermining Britain's reputation as a safe haven for those in genuine need.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Simon Hughes said that progress on the issue should not be measured by the number of applications.

"It is quite wrong to measure success by the number of applicants. Many of those prevented from reaching our shores will have been genuinely fleeing persecution," he said."The fall is not as remarkable as the government would have us believe. Asylum numbers rise and fall - October 2002 was a high watermark, and the figures have now fallen back to the same level as two years ago.

"The fall in the number of Iraqi asylum seekers goes a long way to explain today's figures."A very worrying development is the news that 2,850 people have been refused accommodation and money for food under the new rules."

The Tories have poured cold water on the data, claiming ministers are failing to remove tens of thousands of asylum seekers whose cases are rejected.

And Amnesty International's UK director, Kate Allen, said "people should come before targets".

"The government's current obsession with asylum 'number-crunching' risks obscuring the fact that the real issue is not whether or not we can 'get the numbers down' but whether we can offer protection to the world's tortured and persecuted," she said.