In response to the riots which struck London and other English cities last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron Sunday announced a tougher approach to policing.

Cameron said in an interview with the weekly newspaper The Sunday Telegraph that there would no tolerance for even petty crimes on city streets, copying an idea called "zero tolerance" which first surfaced in the United States in the late 1990s.

The "zero tolerance" idea would allow police to regain control of the streets from gangs and criminals with a policy of prosecuting even minor offenses.

"We haven't talked the language of zero tolerance enough," said Cameron, who promised a major announcement on policing before the autumn.

Cameron also underlined that he believed the rioters were criminals, and that the riots should not be treated as protests.

"These people who were nicking televisions were not complaining about the reform of the education maintenance allowance or tuition fees. They were nicking televisions because they wanted a television and they weren't prepared to save up and get it like normal people," said the prime minister.

He said he would not reverse government policy on two-billion-pound (3.22 billion U.S. dollars) cuts in funding for police over the next four years.

Meanwhile courts stayed open over the weekend to deal with the cases connected with the riots. The Metropolitan Police Force in London said it had so far arrested about 1,200 people and expected to arrest 3,000. Over 20 percent of the cases so far dealt with in court have involved children.

English cities have largely been free of violence since Thursday night, with police putting a large number of officers on duty and canceling leave. The government and leading police officers have vowed to maintain the high numbers of police for as long as necessary.

 VietNamNet/Xinhuanet