Cabinet is expected to receive a report, next week, on the arrest of the most wanted criminals in the country.

In his State of the Nation Address in April, President Thabo Mbeki indicated that government would ensure the arrest by August, of the top 200 criminals in the country.

Briefing the media in Cape Town earlier this week, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said the Scorpions and the police would submit that "full report".

He said meanwhile, some significant strides had been made regarding various categories of crime in the past three months.

"This includes 70 criminals involved in cash-in-transit and bank robberies. Some of the criminals were killed of course, in shoot outs with the law enforcement agents, as happened last week."

The police successfully foiled two cash-in-transit heists two weeks ago, further putting impetus on their commitment to curb the scourge of such violent crimes.

This was pulled off in two separate operations after the police had received tip-offs, leaving three suspects fatally wounded.

On crime statistics, Nqakula said the South African Police Service would table its annual report in September.

"It will indicate the reasons for the good measures of comfort we have following the successful implementation of our integrated law enforcement strategies," he said.

He said his department had also set up targets for crime reduction across the country.

In this regard, he said the first draft on socio-economic crime profiling the 63 contact crime areas had been finalised and it included all areas where crime was rife.

Nqakula said efforts to ensure better control of illegal firearms and ownership through the Firearms Control Act of 2000 would continue.

Since the beginning of this year, thousands of guns had been confiscated and 45 427 guns were destroyed countywide.

However, there were still high levels of firearms reported lost or stolen.

"A total of 10 975 were reported lost or stolen during the period of January, 2004 to the end of July."

To date, the department had considered a total of 44 432 firearms licence applications.

However, compliance with the Firearms Control Act, requirements of approved competency tests and strict control of legally possessed firearms was maintained.

The minister said provisions of the legislation as well as decisions made by the courts necessitated a more intense evaluation of firearm licence applications.

Regarding organised crime, he said in the first six months of this year, 88 such syndicates were neutralised with 196 and 490 members arrested.

Goods seized carried a monetary value of R100-million.

The police were also focusing intelligence on 12 other syndicates while an intricate web of national and international links had been uncovered in the lucrative abalone smuggling depleting the country's resources. – BuaNews.