DEPUTY Prime Minister John Prescott has pledged that the government will learn lessons from the Burnley riots.

He visited Burnley yesterday to throw his weight behind the task force examining the cause of the disturbances in June.

And after meeting representatives of the task force, when he listened to what members believe are the main causes of the disturbances, he promised to return when their report has been completed.

It came a day after the Home Office's community cohesion review team, which is examining the riots in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley, came to Burnley to meet the task force, councillors, community leaders and representatives of the local police.

Mr Prescott said: "I met members of the task force and the council, as I did in Oldham.

"I have discussed their concerns and am looking forward to the report of the cohesion team and the task force.

Mr Prescott said the government wanted to do all that it could for Burnley and that lessons must be learnt.

"I am responsible for co-ordinating all government departments and I shall certainly be doing that."

The Bishop of Burnley, the Rt Rev John Goddard, is a member of the task force and met Mr Prescott. He said: "He gave the task force an opportunity to reflect on their work.

"We had a dialogue with him about what we thought were our main issues to do with the disturbances."

Jehan Ali sits on the task force as a representative of mosque Leaders.

He spoke to Mr Prescott about the decline in the number of schools that visit mosques. He said: "Only one school visits our mosque now -- Stoneyholme Primary, and 99 percent of their intake is Asian."

Mr Ali claimed that the visits by local schools stopped a year ago and no reasons have been given. "The visits helped to go a long way to help people understand different religions and cultures", he added.

Task force chairman Lord Clarke said: "We are extremely pleased that the Deputy Prime Minister found the time to sit down and with us and hear first hand the views of the community.

"The task force made it very clear to him the problems that Burnley faces."

The town's MP, Peter Pike, said: "The important thing for me is that he has honoured his commitment to come.

"He wants to return after all the reports are in and he has promised to meet me in the House of Commons to discuss the issues again."

Mr Pike and Mr Prescott also discussed ways of dealing with Burnley's 3,000 empty houses - houses which, Mr Pike claimed, "nobody wants to live in."

Mr Prescott is the first senior cabinet member to visit Burnley in over 30 years. The last was George Brown who came as Foreign Secretary in the 1960s.

Two protesters waited outside the town hall.

Andrew Hennessey, from Carr Road Burnley and Anthony Watson, of Hornby Street Burnley were staging a "peaceful protest" against Burnley's housing crisis.

Andrew said: "Mr Prescott is coming to Burnley to use it as a political stage. We want Burnley to be looked at as a special case.

"I believe that Burnley Borough Council are deliberately running down housing areas that have been in Burnley for years just so that they can build new ones."

The visit was arranged after Peter Pike raised the matter of a Prime Ministerial visit during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons in July.

After further discussions with Tony Blair in the garden of 10 Downing Street, it was agreed that a visit from the Deputy Prime Minister would be appropriate.