RACIAL equality campaigners today pledged to help Lancashire police recruit more ethnic minority officers after it was revealed the force had failed to meet Government targets.

The constabulary currently has 60 black and Asian officers and needs to recruit a further six by the end of March to meet the targets.

Police say the total number of new officers for this year is likely to be ten as opposed to the departmental target of 12.

Blackburn MP Jack Straw set tough quotas for the county's force when he was Home Secretary three years ago in a bid to bring in more black and Asian officers.

The move followed the Stephen Lawrence killing and the findings of the subsequent Macpherson Report.

Lancashire's current total of black and Asian officers will have to be doubled to 123 over the next decade in order to meet targets.

The shortfall is further compounded by the fact that two ethnic minority officers have recently left the constabulary, including the force's Ethnic Minority Recruitment Officer, PC Mebs Ahmed.

Mr Ahmed has left the force to take up a post with the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Despite the setback, the constabulary says it is succeeding in its bid to increase the number of recruits from the ethnic minorities.

A recruitment campaign in September and October last year saw the percentage of ethnic candidates applying to join the force rise from 6.7 per cent to 9.4 per cent out of a total of 607 applicants.

The failure to meet this year's targets has been met with dismay by the Racial Equality Council, although they said they were happy with the efforts being made by the constabulary.

Director of the REC for Blackburn with Darwen, Abdul Choudry, said: "We are obviously not happy that the targets haven't been met this year, but we support the work that Lancashire Constabulary have done to try to increase the number of ethnic minority officers.

"This is not a reflection on the efforts they have made, but more needs to be done on both sides to make sure youngsters from the ethnic minorities who want to apply to join the police force are able to do so."

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: "Efforts are continuing to recruit ethnic minority officers into Lancashire Constabulary. This is reflected in the work of all officers and support staff currently seeking to improve the recruitment, retention and progression of minority ethnic officers."

The force is, however, on course to meet this year's target to recruit eight ethnic minority special constables.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service are also making efforts to increase the number of applicants from ethnic minorities.

They currently have just four full-time staff and five retained or part-time firefighters from the black and Asian community out of a total workforce of 1,400.

The service recently held a series of "taster" days in a bid to boost the number of both ethnic minority and women recruits.

Spokesman John Taylor said the days had been a positive step with several members of the ethnic minority community attending. He said: "We are well below our targets for ethnic minority recruiting, but are making efforts to address this."