THE crime rate in tightly regulated Singapore dropped a further 2.6 percent in the first half of 2000, continuing a downward trend from last year's record 21 percent drop in reported offences, police said Wednesday. All nine crime indices declined, with robberies down nearly 30 percent and a 32 percent fall in housebreaking offences.

The crime rate for every 100,000 people fell to 481 cases from 498 a year ago.

"Despite the lower base against which the figures for the first half of 2000 is being judged, the decline appears to continue," police commissioner Khoo Boon Hui said in a statement.

"Strengthening both intelligence and operations further have served us well."

After nine years of decline, crime levels in Singapore rose five percent in 1998 when the island state slid into recession due to the regional financial crisis.

But Khoo noted after last year's turnaround that the economic recovery meant "the link of a weak economy contributing to crime is no longer significant."

Cheating remained the most prevalent crime with 923 reported offences, 58 percent involving conmen, in the first six months of this year, according to police figures.

There were 27 murders and 63 cases of rape in the same period in Singapore which has a population of nearly 3.9 million people.

Khoo, praising the public as a "key partner" in crime control, said 40 percent of criminals involved in serious offences were caught with public assistance.