THE North-East has the second highest rate of alcohol- related deaths in the country, new statistics have shown.

Findings from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that in 2003 13.1 deaths per 100,000 people were due to alcohol.

Alcohol-induced deaths were also found to be more common among men than women.

The statistics come in the wake of research published last year, which showed that the North-East has the highest proportion of adults who exceed the recommended daily alcohol consumption of four units for men and three for women.

Mick Davies, of the Tunstall Unit in Sunderland - the region's only alcohol and drugs detox centre - said he was disappointed, but not surprised by the findings.

"We have always known that the North-East has a particular problem with excessive drinking, but we must realise that another real problem is accessing services when people have alcohol related problems," he said.

"While there has been a lot of work done for people with drug addictions, there has been very little done for people with alcohol problems. As a result, you would not expect things to get any better.

"The figures we have come across are that as many as ten per cent of adults will be experiencing significant problems with alcohol at any one time. And of that number, another ten per cent will be having problems of the most serious nature.

"So in somewhere the size of Sunderland or Darlington, that's quite a significant number of people affected."

The ONS statistics also showed that nationally in 2003 there were 6,580 alcohol-related deaths, which was an increase of 600 compared to the findings of two years earlier