NEWHAM is no ghetto, according to an expert based in the borough.

Professor Phil Cohen, director of the London East Research Institute at the University of East London (UEL), has spoken on national radio and to the Guardian refuting claims that Britain is becoming divided into racial ghettoes.

His comments came after Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, was quoted saying Britain was "sleepwalking" towards the kind of segregation seen in US cities.

Mr Cohen said on BBC radio: "There is no doubt that racial discrimination exists, and it is the case that there is a tendency for people of similar backgrounds to live together in neighbourhoods, but we are a long way from the sharp patterns of segregation seen in US cities.

"East London is characterised by tremendous ethnic diversity and most neighbourhoods are in fact increasingly diverse."

Mr Cohen said the term ghetto' was inappropriate because the original ghettos in Europe during the middle ages were set up by law to confine the Jewish population to one area of a city.

He told the Guardian US-style black ghettoes were very large, while London's populations varied between racial groups and social classes from one street to the next.

He said: "Ghetto is a pariah' word. It's insulting and it evokes the wrong images and associations of people excluded by the area they live in.

"You cannot identify a ghetto of black disadvantaged people in Newham."

Newham has no overall majority ethnic population although the most prevalent racial group is white, at 39 per cent.

Mr Cohen agreed the borough had many of the problems associated with US ghettoes such as street crime, drugs, gang violence, poor health and below-average attainment in schools.

But he argued that calling it a ghetto would simplify a more complex issue.

He said Newham could more accurately be described as a scene of transition, with house prices rising and the borough council encouraging more middle class people to live in the area.

This gentrification is likely to be accelerated by the 2012 Olympic Games, and could lead to working-class people being displaced from the area, he said.