WASHINGTON – Racial prejudice, most often directed at black people, was behind more than half of the nation’s 7,400 reported hate crime incidents in 2003, the FBI said yesterday.

Reports of hate crimes motivated by anti-black bias totaled 2,548 in 2003, more than double the total hate crimes against all other racial groups. There were 3,150 black victims in the reports, including four who were murdered, according to the annual FBI figures.

The overall total of 7,489 hate crime incidents reported in 2003 was slightly above the 7,462 reported in 2002, the lowest number since 1994. Race bias was behind 3,844 of the 2003 cases.

Intimidation, vandalism, and property destruction account for nearly two-thirds of the nation’s hate crimes.

Although the FBI report does not provide details, a database maintained by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., shows that such incidents range from spray-painting of swastikas and racial slurs on people’s property to menacing with guns and verbal threats.

There were also hundreds of violent hate crimes in 2003, including 14 murders. There were more than 2,700 assaults, 444 robberies, burglaries, and thefts related to prejudice, and 34 arson incidents.

A spokeswoman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Heidi Beirich, said the FBI’s hate crime totals are probably low because reporting by local law enforcement agencies is voluntary, and some states have weak hate crime laws. Some states, for example, don’t recognize prejudice against sexual orientation as the basis for a hate crime.

“We have found several flaws. We think there’s really more like 50,000 hate crimes out there each year,” Ms. Beirich said.

The FBI report shows that crimes categorized as anti-Islamic remained at the about same level in 2003 – 149 crimes – as the year before. There was a spike in such crimes immediately after the 2001 terror attacks, helping drive the overall hate crime number much higher that year to 9,730.

By far the most reports of hate crimes based on religion involved Jews, with 927 incidents in 2003, about the same as in 2002.

“The urgent national need for both a tough law enforcement response and education and programming to confront violent bigotry has only increased over the past three years,” said Michael Lieberman of the Anti-Defamation League.

The report also found more than 1,200 hate crimes based on sexual orientation, including 783 against male homosexuals. That included six murders.

Of all known offenders, 62% were white and 18% were black. About a third of all hate crimes occurred at people’s homes, with 17% taking place on highways or streets and almost 12% at colleges, universities, and other educational institutions.

The FBI hate crimes report is drawn from information submitted by more than 11,900 law enforcement agencies around the country. Only about 16% of those agencies reported any hate crimes in their jurisdictions during 2003.

All states except Hawaii reported at least one hate crime last year. Mississippi reported only one hate crime, and Alabama said it had two. By contrast, California reported 1,701 hate crimes, New Jersey had 638, and New York reported 625.

Several civil rights groups said those figures show a need for stronger federal laws against hate crimes as well as increased Justice Department assistance for local law enforcement agencies to prosecute such crimes. Legislation to do that passed both the House and Senate this year but failed when differences between the two versions could not be worked out.