FRESH warnings were issued last night about the need to stop far-right extremists from making their first major electoral breakthrough in the North-East.

The warnings came as British National Party leader Nick Griffin visited the North-East yesterday and predicted that the movement would win its first council seats in the region next month.

And he forecast that, although the party has previously won seats in Burnley, Blackburn and Halifax, it would celebrate its first multiple victories in the North-East and take control of a North-East local authority within the next ten years.

The party has made the North-East its prime target, leading to growing concerns that it has to be stopped from gaining a political foothold in the region.

Mr Griffin was in Sunderland yesterday, where the BNP is contesting all 25 local council seats up for election on May 1.

Its 54 candidates in the North-East make up almost a quarter of its total national slate, with 11 in Gateshead and Newcastle, seven in Darlington, two in Wear Valley, three in Stockton, two in Sedgefield, two in Derwentside, and one each in Easington and South Tyneside.

Mr Griffin said the response on the doorstep showed that the North-East was potentially the BNP's strongest area in the country.

"The party has grown rapidly here and there is a great deal of potential," he said.

He said the party aimed to win a handful of seats next week, but its main objective was to register strong enough showings to challenge for a large number of seats in next year's council elections.

"That will be our breakthrough year, and if we can win a few seats this year, that will make it much easier next year," he said.

"A town or city in the North-East is quite likely to become the first BNP council in due course. I think it will happen within ten years - and once the first couple go down, it will be like dominoes and they will all go down."

His views were condemned by anti-racist organisations who said there was no place for the BNP in the North-East.

About 60 members of the Tyne and Wear Anti-Fascist Association protested outside a pub in Sunderland last night where Mr Griffin was due to meet BNP activists.

Fifteen party supporters were heckled with shouts of "Nazi scum" as they met at the North Star pub, but Mr Griffin failed to turn up.

A spokesman for the association said: "The BNP should be kept out of the North-East. They have not got the strong base of support they claim.

"The North-East is re-nowned for its friendly, welcoming people and that is not the image of this party."