"Unrealistic", "unachievable" and "morale damaging" are the words Thames Valley Police has used to describe the Government's targets to cut crime.

Thames Valley Police Authority is at loggerheads with the Home Office over new targets for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs).

The Home Office has told CDRPs -- which bring together police, councils and other groups involved in the fight against crime -- that offences must be reduced by 15 per cent in the south east by 2008.

But Thames Valley has been set among the toughest targets, and its CDRPs have to reduce crime by about 20 per cent.

Thames Valley Police already has separate targets of reducing burglary, robbery and car crime by five per cent.

Chief Constable Peter Neyroud said the force was expected to achieve the 20 per cent reduction with one of the lowest numbers of police officers and one of the worst funding settlements.

He said unrealistic goals could damage morale. "Heads will drop, and they will drop for a long time."

Oxford police authority member Ben Simpson appealed to the Home Office to "get real". "It's just not achievable," he said.

The police authority has also criticised the Government because the police's crime reduction targets and those of the CDRPs have a different emphasis. Yet officers must work to reduce both.

John Scott, the Home Office's crime reduction director for the south east, said he would be working with the area's CDRPs and wanted to have a positive relationship with them.

The CDRPs success will be gauged against the British Crime Survey, which is a poll of about 20,000 people, interviewed about their actual experiences of crime.

Police authority member Peter Rickaby said: "What does the poor area commander do when he has got one target for the CDRP and one for the chief constable?

"I have always said that targets should be challenging but realistic. These are mostly unrealistic."

Mike Simm, Oxfordshire County Council's head of community safety, said: "There is potentially a significant conflict for the police and their partners in the CDRPs."

Oxford's partnership must cut crime by between 20 and 22.5 per cent. Cherwell and South Oxfordshire have targets of between 15 and 17.5 per cent.

The Vale of White Horse and West Oxfordshire have targets of between 10 per cent and 12.5 per cent.