A SINGLE North-East police force is likely to be created to give senior officers the muscle to tackle the new threats of terror and organised crime.

A report to Home Secretary Charles Clarke warned yesterday that no force with fewer than 4,000 officers could cope with the demands of modern policing.

It paves the way for a bigger than expected shake-up of North-East policing, which is currently split into three forces - Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria.

Cleveland and Durham - both of which have fewer than 1,800 officers each - have long been suggested as likely candidates for merger.

But such an amalgamation would still leave the new force short of the 4,000 strength demanded by yesterday's study.

It suggests Northumbria could also be forced to merge, although with 4,088 officers of its own, it is above the recommended threshold.

Separately, the North Yorkshire force (1,561 officers) is also likely to be swallowed up in the new set-up.

Mr Clarke will reveal more details of how he intends to cut English forces from 43 to 30 after meeting chief constables on Monday.

Cleveland Police declined to comment ahead of Sean Price, its senior officer, travelling to London.

But a Durham force spokesman said: "No proposal has been put forward that we know of to merge Durham with any other force."

Yesterday's report, by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), proposes creating 30 "strategic forces" through a series of mergers.

It says individual forces must be able to cope with five threats - firearms, Class A drugs, immigration, money laundering and counterfeit goods. But, it concluded, small forces were unable to tackle organised crime effectively because they did not have enough officers to act on intelligence.

The report said: "Forces with over 4,000, or 6,000 staff, tended to meet the standard.

"Forces below that size tended to fall someway short of the standard with, in general, the smallest forces faring the least well.

"Larger forces are likely to have much greater capability and resilience, while smaller forces find it harder to provide the services to an acceptable standard."

Without naming them, the report pinpointed some smaller forces that depended on larger forces for armed response vehicles and response to public order incidents.

HMIC also considered alternative set-ups of 'federations' of forces, co-operating more closely together, or the creation of "lead" forces on certain key issues. But it concluded there was a shortage of forces capable of leading, while federations would struggle for accountability and public acceptance.

The 43-force structure dates back to 1974. Before that, there was as many as 125 separate forces in England.