CHILDREN as young as ten will be offered drug treatment in a fresh bid to break the link between drugs and crime.

An arrest referral scheme - which is already up and running for adults - will be extended to under-18s in Middlesbrough and nine other pilot areas across the country.

And youngsters below the age of ten could also be given help if they are taken into custody for their own protection.

But youngsters will face waits of to five weeks for treatment - fuelling fears that many will fail to show up for subsequent appointments.

Announcing the new schemes, Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "Early intervention is key if we are to crack the downward spiral of drugs and crime.

"The arrest referral scheme will intensify our efforts to prevent young people offending, in areas where drug-fuelled crime hits local communities hardest."

Latest Home Office figures show that the average waiting time for specialist drugs prescribing is five weeks - a drop from previous years.

In addition, drug users across the UK must wait nearly four and a half weeks for residential rehab, almost four weeks for inpatient detox and nearly three weeks for structured counselling.

The government is spending £447m over three years to fund its Criminal Justice Interventions programme, to identify drug addicts who commit crimes to fund their habits.

Under the referral scheme, everyone arrested by the police is interviewed by a drugs advice worker and offered appropriate treatment.

A separate programme, called drug testing and treatment orders, can sentence criminals over 16 to drug treatment for up to three years.

A Home Office study in 2000, partly carried out in Sunderland, found that 69 per cent of people arrested test positive for illegal drugs.

The average weekly expenditure on drugs was £129, with cocaine and heroin users spending, on average, £308 a week on their habit.

A separate report, by the Audit Commission, suggested that half of all crime was drug related, with addicts raising a staggering £500m through crime.

The scheme for under-18s will also be piloted, from December, in Camden, Newham, Southwark, Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Calderdale, Hull and Nottingham.