Reid calls for rethink on human rights laws

The Home Secretary believes judges who follow the law 'to the letter' by refusing to deport suspects, put lives at risk.

As Britain is effectively at war with terrorists, human rights laws must be 'modernised' to cope with the threat, he added.

The Home Office has repeatedly clashed with judges over attempts to deport foreign terror suspects and plans to detain suspects for 90 days without charge.

And Dr Reid told a G6 summit of the six largest EU members, that the distinction in international law between human rights in wartime and in peace is outdated.

He said: "We need to work to modernise the law - still protecting human rights and still providing equity and justice, but reflecting the reality of the conflicts we now face."

He said that traditional wars, for which provision is made in international law, are unlike "the conflicts which we now observe in the Balkans, Afghanistan or Iraq".

Of the threat of Al Qaeda since the September 11 attacks in 2001, he said: "We are all having difficulty adapting to this new situation for which neither the law of war, as previously defined, nor the normal civil law is particularly designed or well-suited.

"Unless we address this gap we are likely to be pushed in two competing directions. Either to look for ways around the law to safeguard our citizens ... or the row all of us in the EU saw recently on rendition [referring to terror suspects flown through Britain].

"Or, instead, to follow the law to the letter and thereby fail...to protect the public through, for example, our inability to deport terrorist suspects."

But Nick Clegg, the LibDem home affairs spokesman, said: "This Government's record on everything from 90-day detention without charge to control orders, suggests ministers have been content to accept a crude trade-off of liberty in the name of security."