North Yorkshire Police is "teetering on the edge" of being ranked among the country's worst-performing forces, according to a damning report.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has called for a better performance from chief constable Della Cannings.

HMIC said only signs of improvement in recent months, since the inspections were concluded at the end of last year, had saved North Yorkshire from the embarrassment of being labelled one of the worst performers in England and Wales.

The first baseline assessments published by the Home Office, grade each force into 16 categories, ranking them excellent, good, fair or poor.

North Yorkshire received two marks of poor, for high-volume crimes, such as car thefts and burglaries, and management.

But that was not as poor as Cleveland, which received six marks of poor, including for tackling high-volume crimes, hate crime, public reassurance, call handling and management.

In contrast, Northumbria was praised as one of the best forces, with five marks of excellent.

Durham Constabulary was neither praised nor criticised, inspectors rating its performance as satisfactory.

The head of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) made it clear that Sean Price, Cleveland's chief constable, could be removed from his job unless the force was turned around.

He warned that powers recently given to Home Secretary David Blunkett meant Mr Price could be sacked quickly if Cleveland's performance worsened.

But Mr Price responded last night saying improvements had already been made.

He said: "If the HMIC were to carry out a review tomorrow, I am sure he would recognise the positive changes that have taken place in recent months and I am confident this will be reflected in the HMIC's update later this year."

Call handling was one of the major concerns across England and Wales, along with forces' ability to tackle cross-border and region-wide crimes such as drug dealing.

HMIC chief inspector Sir Keith Povey said: "It is the frustration that people feel at not being able to get through that leads to more 999 calls."

Fresh assessments will be issued this autumn and then each year. From next year, each force will be given an overall ranking, but HMIC insists this will not be a league table.

Northumbria's good performance means it will only be given a so-called light touch inspection in future years, while Cleveland faces more intensive quarterly scrutiny.

Cleveland force has been in trouble since a scathing report by HMIC last November, which first highlighted rising crime and a failure to properly handle 999 calls.

Since then, the force has been rocked by the revelation of a £7.3m black hole in its budget which forced it to abandon plans to recruit 200 officers.