Ruth Kelly today launched a new initiative to combat extremism and to heal racial and ethnic tensions in British society.

The Communities and Local Government Secretary has set up the Independent Commission on Integration and Cohesion, with a remit to bring Britain's sometimes fractured and mutually suspicious communities together by any means it can.

Ms Kelly warned that Britain's ethnic make-up was now far more diverse than in the days of the Windrush migrants. With hundreds of different languages spoken in schools by migrants from as far afield as Afghanistan and Zimbabwe, international tensions were being played out on the streets of British towns, she said.

She also warned that political correctness had in the past stifled discussion of the true problems society faced, and allowed resentment, misunderstandings, separatism and extremism to flourish.

"It is time now to engage in a new, honest debate about integration and cohesion," said Ms Kelly. "It will have considerably more value if we can be open and honest about the challenges we face. We must not be censored by political correctness, and we must not tiptoe around important issues.

"For example, it is clear that we need a controlled, well managed system of immigration that has clear rules and integrity to counter exploitation from the far right.

"I agree with the Home Secretary: it is not racist to discuss immigration and asylum. There are challenging, legitimate issues we need to talk about and debate. That debate, however, must be based on fact, not myth. How do we establish the necessary trust and maturity to allow this?"

Ms Kelly acknowledged that suspicions between communities were being fuelled by the events of 9/11 and its aftermath, as well as the recent arrests in Britain over an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners.

"For some communities in particular, we need to acknowledge that life in Britain has started to feel markedly different since the attacks on 9/11 in New York and on 7/7 in London - even more so since the events of two weeks ago," she said.

But in an interview on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme earlier, she ruled out changing British foreign policy in response to the strong disapproval voiced by some sections of the community. "I certainly don't accept that it is the root cause of extremism, which I think is based on twisted ideology."

Ms Kelly questioned whether exaggerated respect for multiculturalism in Britain had driven communities apart, an issue already addressed by Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality.

"We have moved from a period of uniform consensus on the value of multiculturalism, to one where we can encourage that debate by questioning whether it is encouraging separateness," she said.

"Trevor Phillips and others have put forward these points of view. These are difficult questions and it is important that we don't shy away from them. In our attempt to avoid imposing a single British identity and culture, have we ended up with some communities living in isolation of each other, with no common bonds between them?"

Ms Kelly said that the new Commission would be looking at ideas for helping migrants to integrate, such as providing English lessons for more of the new arrivals and help finding work.

She praised local initiatives for promoting cohesion, such as school twinnings, and a scheme to write a citizenship curriculum for madrassas (Islamic schools) in Bradford, and said the Commission would encourage the best ideas to be promoted at a national level.

The Commission will be headed by Darra Singh, the leader of Ealing Council, and its 13 other commissioners include academics, youth activists, academics and representatives of the police, trade unions, business, local government, voluntary groups and the Interfaith Network. It will meet for the first time next month.

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