CASTRIES, St. Lucia (CMC):

St. Lucia police said yesterday they have welcomed the initiative by a government minister to try to bring an end to gang warfare in an inner-city community as they reported an overall increase in criminal activities during the first seven months of the year.

Police Commissioner John Broughton told reporters that there had been a 6.6 per cent increase in crime for the period ending July 31, totalling 6,000, but he said there had been major decreases in homicides, burglaries and robberies.

He said that one of the most impressive figures in the data compiled by the force is a 29 per cent decrease in homicides, with a detection rate of 80 per cent.