SCOTLAND's biggest police force yesterday announced a major review of its race relations policy - in a bid to boost public confidence and display its ''determination'' to tackle racist crime - and denied that the move was a reaction to recent problems involving racial discrimination within the force.

Strathclyde Police unveiled a number of measures designed to improve its response to racist crimes, including an attempt to encourage more black and ethnic people to join the force and the setting up of liaison groups in ethnic areas to encourage people to report crime.

But Chief Constable John Orr said the initiative had been planned for a year and was not a ''knee-jerk reaction'' to problems such as a recent industrial tribunal ruling that a former police constable was discriminated against by a senior officer on the grounds of his race.

The move was announced as Home Secretary Jack Straw signalled a fresh crackdown on racist violence, and pledged that ethnic minorities are to be given a '' new and effective voice'' at the heart of Government.

Mr Straw, in his first major speech on the subject since taking office, announced he was setting up a race relations forum to advise Ministers on ethnic minority issues.

He coupled it with the disclosure of proposals to add an extra two years on to the jail sentences of violent offenders where there is a racial motive.

And Mr Straw is next week expected to announce an inquiry into the killing of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was stabbed to death in what an inquest jury called an ''unprovoked racist attack''.

One of the main parts of Strathclyde's revised programme is a new ''fast track'' system for police paperwork on tip-offs about suspected racially motivated incidents, which is aimed at giving police officers a head start in their inquiries.

Police will also now be able to emphasise suspected or actual racist motivation when reporting incidents to procurators-fiscal or reporters to the children's panel to improve awareness of such offences.

In addition, new local race relations responsibilities have been given to the force's 41 officers in charge of sub-divisions.

None of these officers are from the black or ethnic communities' but the force is confident that its new race relations policy will lead to more ethnic minority recruits.

Strathclyde Police has 33 police officers and 17 force support workers from black and ethnic minority groups out of a total workforce of 9187.

Unveiling the new programme, which was launched to coincide with the European Year Against Racism, Mr Orr said the force suspects the level of reporting of racist incidents does not reflect the reality of such events, but that ''achieving realistic levels of reporting is essential if we are to play our part in the creation of safe communities in which citizens from black and ethnic minority backgrounds may live, work, and raise their families''.

Speaking later, he said there was no greater issue than community safety and stressed that, although the number of racially motivated reported incidents in Strathclyde was falling, there was no room for complacency. There were 206 racial incidents reported to the force in 1996/97 - of which 197 were confirmed and 120 (61%) were detected - compared with 230 in 1995/96.

Mr Orr said it would be naive to deny that the force has had some problems with racism in its ranks but stressed ''this has been initiated by me for one reason - to show both internally and externally that Strathclyde Police and its Chief Constable are opposed to racism''.

Strathclyde's updated policy was welcomed yesterday by the chairman of the West of Scotland Community Relations Council, Glasgow councillor Hanzala Malik, who said he believed the perception of the police among the black and ethnic communities was continuing to change for the better. He added: ''It may be a little late but I think the policy tends to go beyond what is legally required from them and I think that is good because it means that we are one step ahead of the game.''