Brown to clamp down on terror

The Chancellor signalled that he is planning a raft of anti-terror legislation when he takes over at 10 Downing Street later this month, reviving measures to allow police to hold suspects for more than 28 days without charge and allowing questioning to continue after a charge is brought.

His proposals have sparked concern among civil liberty campaigners and some MPs, who warned that extending pre-charge detention to as long as 90 days would amount to "internment".

But Mr Brown used a Labour hustings in Newcastle to reassure them that he will introduce measures to safeguard liberties, including a requirement for judicial review of a detention every seven days and greater parliamentary oversight of security.

Mr Brown is also planning to summon cross-party talks in the Privy Council on the use of phone-tap evidence in court - something which was resisted by Prime Minister Tony Blair because security services fear it will expose their secret surveillance methods.

He wants to make support for terrorism an aggravating factor which judges can take into account when passing sentence, as they currently do with racially aggravated crime.

And he is expected to increase the £2 billion security budget in the autumn's Comprehensive Spending Review.

Mr Brown, who is due to take over as PM on June 27, told the hustings that he was ready to be "tough in the security measures that are necessary to prevent terrorist incidents in this country".

He added: "We will have to consider further legislation to do so. I think that is where the public will need to recognise that we have got a new security problem."

But he said he would make sure that "at no point will our British traditions of supporting and defending civil liberties be put at risk.