Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced a major review of firearms laws following five fatal shootings in London, saying that the worrying increase in gun crime being witnessed across Britain is a "specific problem within a specific criminal culture".

|PIC1|Although he admitted the trend was extremely serious, he did say that gun violence was not a "general state of British society".

This weekend one man was shot dead in East London, and three others were wounded in other gun attacks in Manchester, as armed gangs brought the issue of firearms to the front of British media once again.

The latest attacks have come after a series of gun murders in south London over less than a fortnight, including the deaths of three teenage boys.

Blair has now ordered a review of gun laws to help police deal with the growing inner-city gang culture.

Reports have suggested that the government is now considering proposals to lower the age at which the mandatory five-year sentence for carrying a gun can be imposed from 21 to 17.

Police could also be given new powersbto mount surveillance of the homes of people suspected of possessing and using firearms.

Blair acknowledged there was a "real problem", however he said to BBC's Sunday AM Programme: "We have got to analyse what is going wrong here. Is it a general state of British society, British young people? And I think it isn't.

"It is about a specific problem within a specific criminal culture to do with guns and gangs, which doesn't make it any less serious, incidentally, but I think it's important therefore that we address that actual issue.

"How do we make sure that these groups of young people within these specific criminal cultures, who are getting into gangs at an early age and using guns, how do we clamp down on them very hard and provide solutions for that?"