Men who are unable to prove their fatherhood because the mother refuses to allow the child to be DNA-tested have been given some hope, with the Government saying it may back enforceable court orders.

This would enable the child to be removed from the mother's care for a test. The move has long been advocated by men's groups, frustrated that in some cases mothers who do not want the biological father in their lives can legally block any involvement.

It usually relates to cases where the parents were not living together as a couple at the time of birth or within the 10 preceding months.

Justice Minister Mark Burton said yesterday: "Making court orders to undergo parentage testing may be preferable, however further consideration is required on the extent to which it is appropriate to compel the taking of body samples."

It was part of a Government response to a Law Commission report entitled "New Issues in Legal Parenting" released last year, which recommended 30 changes to parental status laws.

The Government has not embraced any of the recommendations outright, subjecting it to criticism from former Law Commissioner Francis Joychild, who helped write the report.

It has, albeit timidly, flagged four areas where it will "consider undertaking further work" to implement the recommendations, including the enforceable DNA tests.

Another of the areas involves extending the presumption of paternity.

The practical impact of this would mean men in de facto relationships with women at the time of birth who were not named as the father - deliberately or because they didn't bother - were legally assumed the father.

Fathers subsequently estranged from the mother who could prove the relationship existed at the time would be judged the father unless the mother proved otherwise.

The change could also thwart the plans of de facto or former de facto couples who do not put the father on certificates for child support reasons.

Enacting a minimum framework formalising consent requirements for DNA parentage testing and making it easier to transfer parentage to implement surrogacy are the other two areas the Government is working on.

It has agreed more work needs to be done on some issues but disagreed with other recommendations.

Ms Joychild said the response was "a bit disappointing. The Government set up the Law Commission to give it independent legal advice free from political pressures".

It had researched internationally, consulted widely and established a legal framework the Government could take out for public discussion.