A federally funded joint task force will be set up to focus on unsolved homicides and help prevent gang-related killings in the Harbor Area and other neighborhoods, the FBI and Los Angeles Police Department announced Friday.

Operation Save Our Streets Joint Task Force began operating on Thursday and is to continue for three months. Task force personnel will work with the LAPD's Criminal Gang Homicide Division in the department's South Bureau.

The new task force is part of a nationwide FBI program to assist local law enforcement. There are about 200 such FBI task forces operating nationwide, working with about 500 local law enforcement agencies.

Collectively known as the LAPD's South Bureau, each division keeps separate crime statistics. The Harbor and Southwest divisions have recorded decreases in homicides this year compared to last, according to the LAPD.

According to police, 70 to 80 percent of all homicides in the South Bureau can be linked to violent street gangs. More than 1,000 unsolved homicides have accumulated since 1978.