The governments of the United States and Ghana on Monday signed an agreement to assist the law enforcement agents in Ghana with 294,000 dollars in their efforts to combat crime.

The grant is from the US State Department's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Programme, which supports law enforcement agencies around the world each year.

Ms Nancy Powell, US ambassador signed for her country while Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu, Minister of the Interior signed for Ghana.

Ms Powell explained that 101,000 dollars would be for the establishment of a community-policing programme by the police service to involve the citizenry in policing.

She said 160,000 dollars would be for the improvement of counter narcotics operations capability and general security at the Kotoka International Airport.

"Airport security has become very important in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the US," she said, adding that Accra airport was growing as a transit hub on the continent.

Ms Powell said 33,500 dollars of the grant was for the Women and Juvenile Unit of the Police to enhance the unit's investigative effectiveness in cases of domestic violence.

The Ambassador expressed the hope that parliament would urgently approve the grant to enable the law enforcement agencies to quickly institute programmes to combat narcotics trafficking, violence against women and children and trafficking in persons and domestic violence.

Alhaji Yakubu said the assistance was to critical areas in battle against crime and hoped that it would impact positively on the maintenance of law and order.

"This assistance will serve as encouragement to the security services in the fight against the recent spate of armed robberies."

The Minister said community policing was of great importance and every effort would be made to achieve it.

Alhaji Yakubu said narcotics trafficking was a menace that must be tackled with all seriousness to save the youth from destruction.

He gave assurance that the law enforcement agencies would not relent in their efforts to maintain adequate security at the airports to ensure that chances were not given to people to cause havoc.