Vomit on the pavement. Scantily clad teenage girls staggering into oncoming traffic. Fights in the street as police sirens wail.

This is Britain on a typical Saturday night.

An explosion in binge drinking over the past few years has turned many town centers into arenas of drunken debauchery. And because of a new government plan, alcohol experts say it is set to get worse.

From Monday, bars and pubs across England and Wales can apply for a license to open for up to 24 hours a day - sweeping away a fixed 11pm closing time observed by most pubs since World War I. Scotland already has extended hours.

The move to flexible closing times, which take effect in November, has sparked a political brawl in the run-up to an expected May general election.

Prime Minister Tony Blair argues that the old system, which forced drinkers to booze against the clock before chucking them all out at the same time, fueled drunken fights, vandalism and vomiting.

But alcohol experts, doctors and police officers say later hours will exacerbate binge drinking, liver disease and the yob behavior that has earned the British worldwide notoriety.

``The evidence from Western Australia, Ireland and Iceland all points towards extending licensing hours increasing the number of people drinking more for longer, which results in more violence and disorder,'' Colin Drummond, professor of Addiction Psychiatry at St George's Medical School in London, said.

Statistics show that 40 percent of weekend emergency hospital admissions are alcohol-related, a figure that rises to 70 percent after midnight, Drummond said. Booze-fueled assaults have risen in recent years and cases of cirrhosis have surged.

``Come 11 o'clock at night, the streets are littered with large groups of young men completely drunk, being loud and staggering about,'' Riwa Komatsubara, a 35-year-old TV producer from Japan, said.

Apocalyptic warnings of the consequences of late opening have put Blair on the defensive.

Pubs will be forced to pay a levy for extra policing if they fail to curb anti-social drinking in their vicinity and ministers are launching a crackdown on the promotion of cheap drink.

The government and the drinks industry however have dismissed what they say are scare stories of ``all-day boozing.''

The British Beer and Pub Association says none of its 35,000 members wants a 24-hour license. Most bars will stay open for a few extra hours at weekends so Britons can have a late-night tipple after the theatre, as enjoyed in France or Spain, Blair said.

``We shouldn't have to have restrictions that no other city in Europe has just for that tiny minority who abuse alcohol, who go out and fight and cause disturbances,'' he said.

But alcohol researchers doubt flexible closing will usher in a civilized, continental-style drinking culture.

Drinking habits in Northern and Southern Europe are converging but binge drinking and drinking to get drunk have been integral parts of British and Northern European culture since the mead-swilling Vikings, experts say.

Southern Europeans have traditionally drunk wine with their families over meals. Britons have tended to drink at the pub.

``Alcohol was never a thing that was easily available on the table. It was something in the pub drunk among men,'' Griffith Edwards, an expert in alcohol and drug addiction, said.

Drinking became a working-class tradition linked to pay day.

``Young people now don't get paid on a Friday night but there is something in British society that has got stuck with this old habit,'' he added.

Jamie Lonie, a 34-year-old graphic designer out drinking beer with his friends after work, is a typical British boozer. ``This is my sixth pint,'' he said. ``If we go straight out after work I don't normally eat. I may get a bag of chips on the way home.''

Britain ranks well below other Western European countries in terms of alcohol consumption per capita but it is first by far in terms of the number of binge-drinking sessions - defined as five or more standard drinks on one occasion.

Sweden ranks second followed by Finland, Germany, Italy and France, according to Britain's Institute of Alcohol Studies.

British institutions like the pub crawl or rounds of drinks force slow drinkers to keep pace and fuel binge drinking.

The English language is rich in colloquialisms to describe inebriation - ``sloshed,'' ``legless,'' ``slaughtered,'' ``hammered,'' ``blotto,'' to name a few.

British governments struggled to control heavy drinking in the 18th and 19th centuries but binge drinking has exploded in past years.

Total alcohol consumption has more than doubled since the 1950s, the Institute of Alcohol Studies says.

Alcohol researchers blame the boom on the increased affordability of liquor, on the deliberate targeting of young drinkers and women with trendy ``alcopops'' and huge ``vertical drinking'' dens where there are no tables for glasses.

Making alcohol more readily available is not the answer to the scourge of binge drinking, experts say.

``An increase in tax on alcohol would be the most effective thing the government could do,'' Drummond said. ``They did it with smoking and it was highly effective.''

REUTERS