KEY POINTS:
Terror suspects will be held for up to 56 days without charge and the country's first single border force created under moves by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to counter the rapidly growing security threat to Britain.
He was accused of threatening a return to internment with the "draconian"
proposal for a sharp increase in the maximum 28-day detention period. To the anger of civil liberties groups and opposition parties, the Prime Minister suggested it could even be doubled.
He said there was a "growing weight of opinion" that suspects might have to be held beyond 28 days when police intervened early to thwart a terrorist attack, where there were huge amounts of evidence to examine and where investigations were international.
Brown set out several options for raising the limit, but said his preference was for an extension "for up to 28 days more or a lesser period" with a judge approving each seven-day extension and MPs being kept informed.
Other possible alternatives were introducing a French-style system of "examining magistrates" to conduct terror trials and giving police the power to question suspects for an extra 30 days by declaring a national emergency.
The Prime Minister took MPs by surprise by announcing the establishment of a unified Border Force, which will bring together officers from the Immigration Service, Revenue and Customs and UKVisas.
From next month travellers arriving at ports and airports will be met by a "highly visible uniformed presence". By the end of the year they will pass through a single control-point for passport and customs checks.
The move, similar to Conservative Party proposals for a border police force, is designed to intercept more potential terrorists when they attempt to enter the country. But critics pointed out that no extra cash would be found to set it up and officers would only have "police-like powers" to detain travellers.
It will be backed by the issuing of biometric visas to all visitors next year and a new system of electronic exit controls from 2009.
In a further attempt to tackle domestic radicalisation, Brown announced an extra £70 million ($180 million) would be given to help local councils and community groups resist violent extremism.
David Cameron, the Tory leader, backed plans to allow terror suspects to be questioned after they have been charged as an alternative to increasing the 28-day period. He said this was the best way of letting police get on with their job "without introducing what could, if we are not very careful, start to look like a form of internment".
Eric Metcalfe, of human rights and law reform group Justice, said: "No amount of additional scrutiny by the courts and Parliament can hope to prevent the injustice of an innocent person detained without charge for over a month."
Nicola Duckworth, of Amnesty International, said the 56-day proposal amounted to "internment and an assault on human rights and freedoms".
Eighteen months ago an attempt by then Prime Minister Tony Blair to increase the maximum detention period from 14 to 90 days was defeated after a Commons rebellion, forcing him to accept a 28-day compromise.
Meanwhile, Parliament's Transport Committee said tighter security checks at airports have created delays and long queues that could make waiting passengers targets for attack.
The committee said an attack on Glasgow airport last month, when a car was rammed into the entrance and set alight as part of a suspected al Qaeda plot, showed how passengers queuing in terminals could be a target.
New rules brought in last year after police warned of a suspected plot to blow up transatlantic flights using liquid explosives have made security checks "lengthy, intrusive and frustrating", the MPs said in a report.
The changes sparked chaos on both sides of the Atlantic, with hundreds of flights cancelled, long delays and widespread confusion over hand luggage rules.
- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS
