However, he has sought input from MPs before making a final decision.

Police Minister Annette King said Mr Broad had recommended police be able to use tasers.

Only selected trained front-line staff could use them. They would not be carried by patrolling staff.

Assaults on police had increased from 57 in 1998-99 to 88 2006-07.

Ms King said 930 police agencies worldwide used tasers.

She said they were faster and more effective dealing with aggressive individuals than pepper spray.

In a statement Green MP Keith Locke said arming police with tasers was a sad step.

"The Greens are very opposed to these painful and sometimes lethal stun guns being introduced into the police armoury."

After a year-long trial in Auckland and Wellington ended last year, police said Tasers were desperately needed because they could stop offenders without killing them.

But opponents of the weapon said they were dangerous and had killed people in the United States. The New Zealand guns deliver a lower voltage than those used in the US.

Police Association President Greg O'Connor said last month that the big gap in police tactical options is tasers, not firearms.

His comments followed in response to a survey showing 53 percent of the New Zealand public would like the police to be armed.

"Police are able to draw firearms when they are needed.

"The big gap in our tactical options is a less-than-lethal option that will reliably incapacitate a dangerous offender.

"Issuing Tasers to every primary response police officer would make a real difference to the safety of police, the public and even offenders themselves," Mr O'Connor said.

He said the survey result was not surprising.

"It is a reflection of the increasingly serious violence that is being witnessed daily by police and public alike.

"However, our own survey of Police Association members in 2005 did not indicate a desire amongst most police to be regularly armed with firearms."

He said besides the personal burden of having to shoot someone, an enormous amount of scrutiny and trial-by-media follows whenever a police officer is required to use lethal force.

"Police today are almost more afraid of having to use lethal force, than they are of being subjected to it.

"That risks making our police tentative in responding to dangerous and volatile situations, and a tentative police force is no use to anyone," Mr O'Connor said.