The lower portion of Oslo's main boulevard, Karl Johan, has become a downright dangerous place between 3am and 5am, as have other streets where bars are concentrated. That's when late-night revellers pour into the streets after downtown bars finally shut off the taps.

Police have grown weary of having to use the vast majority of their resources to break up fights, control street brawls, quiet down noisy gangs and otherwise deal with the antics of drunken Norwegians.

Police chiefs in Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and Trondheim claim that weekends are the worst, from 11pm both Friday and Saturday nights until 5am the next day. "That's when the police have the most to do, during the entire week, during the entire year," they wrote in an appeal to local politicians. "It's in this time period when the most violent crimes take place and when the most vandalism occurs."

The Parliament has ordered that bars nationwide must close by 3am. It's up to local townships, though, to decide what closing hours will be in their own areas.

The police also want sales of fast-food to be shortened, in the hopes that rowdy Norwegians will just go home. "It's our opinion that the framework for peaceful conditions for the public is seriously disturbed by sales- and serving-policies that lead to both over-drinking at a time of night when social control is reduced," the police wrote in their letter.

Justice Minister Knut Storberget called the letter "a strong signal" to local politicians that should be taken seriously. He said he supports the call to close bars earlier.