Speaking at a press briefing to review the crime situation in the territory between January and June, Mr Lee said 40,357 crime cases were recorded, compared with 39, 433 cases in the first half of last year.

The number of overall domestic violence reports recorded had doubled - to 3,702 - compared with the 1,834 cases reported in the year-earlier period. Of these reports, 1,253 cases involved criminal elements, 511 more cases compared with the same period last year. There were 2,449 reports of non-crime cases, an increase of 1,357 cases in the same period last year.

"Police will continue to stress the importance of handling domestic violence cases properly," Mr Lee said.

"By cooperating with various agencies, including government and non-government organisations, by means of multi-disciplinary approach, we hope that the education, prevention and support services to these cases can be enhanced."

There were 7,364 violent crimes in the last six months, up 3.8% compared with 7,091 cases in the corresponding period last year.

The top four categories of violent crimes were serious assault (3,104 cases), criminal intimidation (991 cases), wounding (822 cases) and indecent assault (669 cases).

There were 166 more cases of serious assault - a 4.2% rise. Mr Lee attributed much of the increase in the number of serious assault and wounding cases to the rise of cases relating to domestic violence.

Disputes triggered the majority of assault and wounding cases, about 70% of them. Domestic violence accounted for about 21%, and about 6% were triad-related.

There were 243 more criminal-intimidation cases - a 32.5% increase. More than 60% of all such cases resulted from disputes. Mr Lee said money disputes accounted for about 20%, love disputes for about 18% and commercial disputes for about 3%. The rest were related to other types of disputes.

There were 115 more indecent-assault cases.

There was a drop in violent cases including robbery and homicide, Mr Lee said. There were eight murders compared with 16 in the same period last year.

There were 222 fewer robberies, a 25.2% dip, to 658 cases. In none of the cases was a genuine firearm used. There were only six bank robberies in the first six months, compared with 20 in the same period a year ago.

Police had achieved satisfactory results in the fight against triad activities and serious narcotics cases, Mr Lee said. In June, the Hong Kong Police, working with Guangdong and Macau law-enforcement agencies, arrested 1,588 people and closed 19 gambling dens and 37 vice establishments. They also seized a large quantity of dangerous drugs, pirated optical discs, marked oil, illicit cigarettes and fake goods.

In the first half of this year, there was an 8.1% drop in the number of triad-related offences, to 1,035 cases. They accounted for only 2.6% of the overall crime rate, down from 2.9%, following a downward trend that began in 1997.

In the first six months, Police arrested 1,763 people for serious narcotics offences, a 38.4% increase over the same period a year ago.

"Cases involving psychotropic drugs increased by 55.9%, with Ketamine and cocaine having gone up by 160% and 52%," he said.