The South-East is a blackspot for domestic violence, it was revealed today.

Disturbing new figures show the region has the highest rate in England and Wales, almost twice that of London.

Hugh Marriage, Home Office regional crime director for the South-East, said although the region was the safest area in terms of overall crime figures, it was at the top of the list for abuse in the home.

In 2003, the South-East had a domestic violence rate of 177 cases per 10,000 population, compared to a national average of 120.

Mr Marriage said although the number of incidents had fallen by almost 50 per cent since 2002, the problem still needed urgent attention.

Later today he will encourage agencies and charities to work together to take a more proactive approach to dealing with domestic violence and encourage early intervention to prevent harm.

He will outline a three-point plan aimed at prompting people to speak more freely about domestic violence, encouraging women to report domestic violence earlier and "outing" violent partners to prevent them from slipping from relationship to relationship.

Mr Marriage will tell the National Union of Students domestic violence conference at Portsmouth University, on average, a woman who is killed by a partner or ex-partner will have visited an accident and emergency department 15 times compared with an average of just twice.

He will urge NHS workers, social services, the police and local authorities to share information to enable better identification of high-risk cases.

Mr Marriage will tell the conference research shows most victims of domestic violence want to stay with their partner but want the violence to stop.

The new approach aims to counsel and rehabilitate offenders before it is too late to save the relationship.