The region's biggest police force has bucked the rising trend in robberies, new figures show.

But crime overall within the Northumbria Police force area is still on the up by more than three per cent year on year.

A total of 139,130 crimes were recorded for the year 2001/2 ending in March having increased from 134,777 during the previous 12 months.

The number of robbery offences levelled off at 1,387 compared to 1,381 for 2000/1.

Police chiefs said they wished to reassure the public that "lawlessness was not on the increase".

The robbery figures are set against a rising tide of street crime nationally.

Yesterday the Avon and Somerset force area, which includes the city of Bristol, revealed that robbery in the last 12 months had gone up a massive 77 per cent with attacks on the street blamed largely on drugs.

Northumbria police said they expected a move towards a new National Crime Recording standard to lead to rises in national crime statistics.

The standard newly adopted by all forces this month takes into account a wider range of offences, particularly minor assaults and criminal damage.

This partly accounted for an increase in assaults year on year by 2,772, largely in the less serious categories.

Other headline figures included a drop in house burglaries by 1.2 per cent and theft from cars down by eight per cent.

Northumbria Police chief constable Crispian Strachan said: "We can assure the people of Tyne and Wear and Northumberland that lawlessness is not on the increase.

"People living in the region still have a much lower risk of falling victim to crime than in any other urban area."

During the last 12 months Northumbria Police detected 31.5 per cent of all crime and 69.5 per cent of violent crime.

Increased police activity aimed at cracking down on the illegal drugs trade netted £1.5m worth of drugs.

But police said such an emphasis led to an increase in drugs offences, set at 4,804 and up 13 per cent.

Other forces in the North-East and North Yorkshire are currently preparing their annual crime figures for release in the next few weeks.