The British government will propose an Australian-style points system for migrant workers, seeking to regain the upper hand on an issue that could prove its Achilles heel in an expected May election. Tony Blair is on track for victory but a poll on Sunday showed an attack by the opposition Conservative Party on what it calls a shambolic asylum and immigration system had struck a chord with the public. Hitting back, the Labour government will unveil plans yesterday for a points scheme for migrants to screen out unskilled workers and will announce fresh efforts to deport bogus asylum seekers.

?Controlled migration is beneficial to Britain,? Blair wrote in an article for yesterday?s Times newspaper. ?However populist it may be, shutting it down would be clearly irresponsible and very quickly deeply damaging to our economy?. Blair said Britain needed to clamp down on those who abuse the system, such as students who apply for non-existent courses.

?We need as well to stop random chain migration ? dependants upon dependants; to prevent or penalise sham marriages; to have the power to demand special requirements if applications from particular countries rise significantly; to get after the organised crime that trafficks in people.? Immigration and asylum will be key election battlegrounds. While most analysts rule out a Conservative election win, success on the issue could help them cut the prime minister?s huge parliamentary majority.

Britons are uneasy about overstretched public services and fear porous borders at a time of a heightened terror threat following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the 2004 Madrid bombings. The Conservatives hoisted immigration up the pre-election agenda two weeks ago, proposing a points system for workers, annual limits on immigrants and quotas for asylum seekers. They accuse Blair of presiding over chaos.

In a YouGov poll in The Mail on Sunday, 70 percent of people disagreed with Blair that immigration was necessary because foreign workers are needed to perform jobs Britons are unable or unwilling to do. The Mail said voters supported Conservative plans for annual quotas for immigration ? a move Home Secretary Charles Clarke rejected in a BBC interview on Sunday.

Politicians know asylum and immigration are prime concerns but they are wary of being accused of inflaming a race row or of turning their back on genuine refugees. Labour has called the Conservatives? plans unfunded and impractical. But Conservative co-chairman Liam Fox said on Sunday Blair ?had done nothing for eight years and will not set a limit? on immigration.

Clarke admitted he did not know how many immigrants or failed asylum seekers were living illegally in Britain. The government wants to install a system to fingerprint all immigrants on visas at ports of entry by 2008 and will step up efforts to remove failed asylum seekers, Clarke said. Labour will also limit the number of dependants migrant workers can bring into the country.

<B>Katherine BALDWIN</B>