The prime minister is this week set to seize personal control of the government's immigration policy.

As pressure mounts following weekend media reports, Tony Blair is to call together senior ministers and police chiefs for top-level talks.

Representatives from the Home Office, Foreign Office, Department for Work and Pensions and the security services will meet gather in Downing Street along with the attorney general and other senior officials.

On Monday Number 10 said the "prime minister is determined not to allow abuses of the system to poison the whole idea of managed migration which brings enormous benefits to the whole country".

The meeting will "identify and define concerns and produce a work programme which will be assessed at regular meetings chaired by the prime minister but driven in between by the home secretary" the official spokesman added.

"Where the government recognises there is a problem, we will rationally address that problem."

In a bid to calm the fury over immigration policy, he also reminded reporters of research showing that immigrants contribute more to the economy than they take from public services.

"The CBI, businesses and unions all recognise the need for managed migration," he said. "The economy needs migration if it is to prosper."

Stunt?

Opposition parties have dismissed the summit as a stunt - prompting constitutional affairs secretary Lord Falconer to insist the meeting is not a PR exercise.

"It's not a show - it is making sure that everything is being done to ensure that the policy is actually being delivered," he said.

"But it's got to be managed migration. People have got to have confidence that the rules are being properly put together and then being enforced."

He also denied weekend media reports that Blair had done a deal on immigration visas with his Romanian counterpart.

Number 10 says the prime minister wants to mount a "cross-departmental assault" on immigration and asylum abuse.

Downing Street has denied that the prime minister's decision to take control amounts to a vote of no confidence in David Blunkett.

The meetings, the first of which will take place on Tuesday, is being seen as an attempt to stem the crisis which has engulfed the immigration system in the wake of Beverley Hughes' resignation last week.

Blair is facing claims that ministers were forced to break the rules in order to reduce the overall asylum numbers in a bid to meet his personal pledge to secure a 70 per cent reduction in refugee claims.

Focus

Also present at Tuesday's meeting will be police chiefs - who will examine how the growing problem of organised crime can be addressed.

Number 10 said the prime minister "wants to ensure better cross-government co-ordination on a complex and important area of policy".

The spokesman said Blunkett "welcomes the added focus" on immigration abuse.

"The prime minister believes that there have always been abuses over many governments but a different world makes it even more important that they are tackled vigorously," he said.

"The prime minister does not accept that the immigration system is in chaos. However, he does believe that there has been a decline in public confidence in the integrity of some of the processes. That has to be addressed and rooting out abuse is vital to achieving this."