Archbishop blames Labour's all-day drinking for making the streets less safe

The Archbishop of Canterbury last night said Labour's policy of 24-hour drinking had made the streets less safe.

Dr Rowan Williams said he was "very concerned" that anybody in Government could consider the introduction of round-the-clock opening a success.

And he said there had been an utter failure to tackle the culture of alcohol abuse - including that taking place on the streets of Canterbury.

His intervention is a blow to Gordon Brown, who is preparing to announce that 24-hour drinking is here to stay.

The Prime Minister had raised hopes it would be scrapped by ordering a review of the law within weeks of taking office, but it has since emerged he is planning only minor changes.

The Archbishop said: "I think it has had an effect of making less safe and less civil our public space in many, many contexts, including Canterbury.

"There is a whole culture of alcohol abuse which this country has failed to tackle and the 24-hour thing is just the tip of the iceberg."

His comments will chime with the findings of police and health experts. Officers say that 24-hour drinking - far from reducing mayhem on the streets - has simply pushed the violence later into the night. In some areas drink-related offences have soared by 130 per cent between 3am and 6am.

The British Crime Survey found that in the first full year of the new law the number of drink-related offences rose by 64,000 to 1,087,000.

But neither the Home Office nor Department for Health has raised any major objections to allowing the legislation to continue largely unchanged.

Nationwide there are now 5,000 premises open round-the-clock. Ministers have admitted one of the main aims of extended opening - to create a continental-style cafe culture - may never be achieved.

Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said: "Maybe it's our Anglo-Saxon mentality. We actually enjoy getting drunk. I think there is a bit about risk-taking - people want to push the limits of danger. So I don't think there are any easy answers."

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The Archbishop's remarks on drinking were made in a wide-ranging interview to mark the fifth anniversary of his enthronement.

Dr Williams also criticised proposals to allow the creation of part-animal, part-human embryos for medical research in British laboratories.

Researchers say combining the DNA of humans and animals could lead to new treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Dr Williams said such experiments - which would inevitably lead to the death of the embryos - reduce the human embryo to little more than a scientist's tool.

He added: "There has been a lot of rather extreme and alarmist talk about this, and I fully accept that it is not about the breeding of monsters, but at the same time I think there remains this very instrumentalist view of the human embryo: We use it for something and then destroy it, and I find that ethically very hard to accept."

He went on: "In this country, more than in many others, we seem to be taking for granted that it is all right to regard the human embryo as something to be used instrumentally - that is my big moral concern."

Dr Williams said he "regretted" plans to remove the need for a father when authorising IVF treatment - a move that will make it easier for lesbians to have test-tube babies.

Asked about Christian-Muslim relations in Britain, the Archbishop said they were in a "very good place" at the moment.

Referring to comments by the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, who accused Islamic extremists of creating "no-go areas" for non-Muslims in Britain, Dr Williams said: "The phrase gives a very unfortunate impression."

But he added: "A lot of Muslims will say well there are 'no go' areas for us in British society, in some ways, so if the question is about how do we overcome that mutual isolation, that is a very good question."