Hoon calls for terror debate

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Cabinet Minister Geoff Hoon said he wanted to see a "national discussion" on any fresh proposals to increase the time terror suspects can be held without charge.

But Shami Chakrabati, director of human rights organisation Liberty, warned that Britain could be heading for a state of "permanent emergency".

She said there could only ever be any extension to the limit if policing was being brought to a "standstill" by multiple plots.

Both were speaking ahead of an appearance by Home Secretary Jaqcui Smith before the Home Affairs Select Committee. She is expected to be quizzed about the time limits for detention without charge.

Earlier this month, Britain's most senior police officer, Sir Ian Blair, said the detention limit should be extended amid a "mounting" number of plots in the UK.

The Scotland Yard Commissioner told the committee a pre-charge period "somewhere between" 50 and 90 days was needed. He warned that the worst time to debate whether an extension was needed "would be in the aftermath of an atrocity".

Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, told the BBC today he feared detention powers could "disproportionately affect" the Muslim community.

He told Radio 4's The World This Weekend: "The worry about this is that we then stigmatise whole communities and in my view that is the road to ruin."

Mr Hoon, who is the Government Chief Whip, told ITV1's The Sunday Edition: "If the police and security services were calling for a particular extension by a specific number of days I believe that there would have to be a proper debate in the country and in Parliament before any new proposal was brought forward.