HUGE strides have been made in bringing communties together in Burnley since the 2001 riots, a House of Commons select committee has been told.

But only a reversal of Burnley's economic fortunes - a new wave of prosperity after years of decline - will fully help to breach the gulf which exists between the town's white and Asian communities, it heard.

Seven years on from the race disturbances which divided the town, MPs descended on Burnley Town Hall yesterday to debate how far white and ethnic minority communities had come in terms of integration.

MPs from the Commons' communities and local government committee heard evidence from a host of witnesses - from council chiefs to regeneration cam-paigners to the leaders of resident groups.

Shufkat Razaq, chairman of Burnley Action Partnership, said when his parents came to Burnley, many years ago, they were broadly welcomed.

He said: "Everyone gen-uinely got on well but then the decline started and factories started to close.

"There was a correlation between tensions building up within the community and this happening."

He said there was a "lot of good work" though going on in building up relationships between communities.

MPs heard that Burnley was still physically segregated. The majority of Asian neighbourhoods remain in Daneshouse and Stoneyholme but people quite often mixed at work, in schools and socially.

Council chief executive Steve Rumbelow said: "We have a mature approach to cohesion. We do not get hysterical."

If communities developed along ethnic lines, because people wanted to be near particular shops, their local mosque or extended families, this was not automatically seen as a problem, according to Mr Rumbelow. He said: "We are very clear that the biggest problem that this town faces is deprivation - the most urgent help we need is investment to turn Burnley around."

MPs heard that recent developments such as the proposed new £80million university and college campus and the development of the former Michelin site for industrial purposes would help to regenerate the town.

Council leader Coun Gordon Birtwistle added: "This will give hope to people who at present have to live in conditions which are unacceptable." Richard Chipps, of Thursby Gardens Residents Group, said there was still a perception that Asian areas of Burnley received more funding than white' districts - only by establishing the facts over such funding could this notion be dispelled.

The select committee has visited Peterborough, to examine the effects of European Union migration on rural jobs there, and another trip will take place to Barking and Dagenham.