"In the current debate surrounding the best means to secure indigenous socioeconomic improvement, a number of commentators have advocated enhanced migration to urban centres asa panacea," the report from John Taylor of the Australian National University says.

But the figures show that urban Aborigines did not improve their lot inthe 10 years following the last recession in 1991.

"If anything, the indication is that concentration (of indigenous residents) in the (poor urban) neighbourhoods might have slightly increased between 1991 and 2001."

Further complicating the issue, the indigenous population in remote areas isincreasing faster than the national average.

Aborigines are likely to become less urbanised in the future, the research suggests. "Despite the historic shift in indigenous population distribution to urban locations, indigenous people remain far more likely than other Australians to reside away from cities, especially in remote areas," the report says.

"Indigenous people account for almost half of the resident population across three-quarters of the continent, and their share of this population is rising."

Dr Taylor's paper was presented to last month's crisis meeting of indigenous affairs ministers chaired by federal minister Mal Brough.

Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin is using the Taylor reportas part of her push to draw up a 20-year plan to improve indigenous living standards.

"As a country we really need to focus our efforts on seeing change," Ms Martin said after the Council of Australian Governments meeting on Friday. "And it's going to take a generation at least. These problems have developed over many years."

Dr Taylor, who is a senior fellow with the ANU's Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, found that indigenous people living in the poorest suburbs suffered unemployment rates double or triple those of their non-indigenous neighbours.

He listed a number of examples, including the nation's poorest suburb, Elizabeth, in north Adelaide. Here the non-indigenous unemployment rate was 21 per cent at the 2001 census, but for indigenous people it was much higher, at 34 per cent.

The outer southwestern Sydney suburb of Macquarie Fields, the scene of the "white riot" last year, had an even wider gap -- 11 per cent unemployment for the non-indigenous and 30 per cent for the indigenous residents.

Dr Taylor finds little evidence of indigenous upward mobility in the cities.

"Indigenous people are over-represented in the poorest city neighbourhoods and this pattern appears to be very stable over time despite substantial growth in the major urban population.

"Over the decade since 1991, it appears indigenous people have comprised a progressively rising share of total population in the lowest status neighbourhoods and (since 1996) afalling share in middle-ranked neighbourhoods."