Health bosses have admitted they are struggling to cut the number of teenage pregnancies in a city.

Government targets mean Brighton and Hove has until 2010 to halve the number of under-18s who become pregnant.

The most recent figures published show in 2003 there were 192 conceptions, giving the city a rate of 46.6 per 1,000 of the female population aged 15 to 17.

This is higher than the average for England of 42.1 and well above the South East rate of 33.1.

The figures were a slight increase on 2002 when the rate was 46.1 and there were 179 conceptions.

In his annual report published this autumn, Brighton and Hove's director of public health Tom Scanlon said teenage pregnancy continued to be a challenge.

He wrote: "Teenage conception rates as a whole are not falling at the same rate as national rates and the national target of a 50 per cent reduction by 2010 may not be reached."

Brighton and Hove City Primary Care Trust and the city council have been focusing their efforts on under-16s and have had some success in cutting rates. They are now working on the slightly older age group to try to bring the numbers down.

A teenage pregnancy action plan is working to improve access to education, employment and training and provision of appropriate support and accommodation for young parents. An evaluation is also being drawn up on contraception and social health services in the city.

The higher rates of pregnancies are in wards classed as having some social deprivation such as Moulsecoomb, Bevendean and East Brighton.

Links between pregnancy and higher levels of problems such as low income and housing problems are being investigated.

Officials say education is the key. A Department for Education and spokesman said nationally work was progressing well although the UK still had the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Europe.

He said: "The under-18 conception rate has fallen by almost ten per cent since the Government launched the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy in 1998 but we cannot be complacent. We are halfway through our ten year strategy and need to accelerate progress to meet our challenging target of halving teenage pregnancies by 2010.

"That is why we are intensifying the delivery of the strategy in high-rate wards and at young women at greatest risk of teenage pregnancy."