Despite his extensive experience and 27 commendations, the man taking over from Sir Paul Condon at the Met will have his work cut out to improve the fortunes of Britain's biggest police force.

John Stevens, the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner, will meet Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday at the release of the latest crime figures.

He has already taken a couple of the toughest jobs in policing - heading an inquiry in Northern Ireland and one into corruption inside the Met.

He needed a thick skin for those challenges and he will need it just as much to take the Met into the new millennium.

The force has been battered with criticism following the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager stabbed to death by racists in South London in 1993.

Mr Stevens will have to raise the morale of his 26,500 officers and at the same time change the force's racist, sexist and homophobic image.

His career has taken a conventional path for a high-flying policeman.

His started with the Met and then raced up the ranks with various forces, including Hampshire, Cambridgeshire and Northumbria.

Office politics

He also made the smart career move of a spell in the Inspectorate of Constabulary where officers pick up on Home Office politics.

What marks him out from his contemporaries are the two "missions impossible" he presided over.

In 1989 he waded into the nettlebush that is law and order in Northern Ireland, heading an inquiry into the murder of Catholic lawyer Pat Finucane.

He ignored the advice of the former Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, John Stalker, who headed a long running inquiry into "shoot to kill" allegations in the province.

After all his problems with the complex affairs of Northern Ireland, Mr Stalker suggested anyone asked to perform a similar duty should "go sick".

Since May last year, Mr Stevens has led the Met's inquiry into claims of corruption within its own ranks.

That is another of policing's most thankless tasks although he largely managed to escaped unscathed.

Met's new masters

Mr Stevens was one of five candidated interviewed for the £130,000-a-year top job at the London force after the post was advertised for the first time.

As well as rebuilding the Met's relations with London's ethnic minorities, the new commissioner will have to deal with different masters.

The elected Mayor of London and the new assembly will have a big say over policing in the capital.

John Stevens has an honours degree in law, a masters degree in philosophy and was visiting professor at the City University in New York.