BRITAIN: British home secretary Charles Clarke won backing yesterday from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to get his new anti-terror laws on to the statute book by the end of the year.
The deal was reached after an hour of talks at the Home Office during which it was agreed to set aside the renewal of the controversial "control orders" on terror suspects until the new year.
The opposition parties also agreed not to press for the introduction of phonetap evidence in terrorist cases in this package of measures.
In return the home secretary agreed to look again at the language in his newly proposed offence of "indirect incitement to terrorism" and to clarify exactly who it is designed to catch.
The package also includes a new law clamping down on terrorist training camps and the creation of a new offence of planning a terrorist act.
"There are no main outstanding issues of difference," said Mr Clarke after the talks. He said he would announce the introduction of the new anti-terrorist legislation in a Commons statement tomorrow.
It is expected the legislation will be published in draft in September and could now reach the statute book by December.
"We believe that this is the right way to go and we believe that it will enable us to address the threat we face with a unity and determination which is critical," said the home secretary, with the Conservative spokesman, David Davis, and the Liberal Democrats' Mark Oaten by his side.
"We will discuss the details of the legislation between ourselves in September. Though there are no main outstanding issues of difference, there are issues we will discuss."
Mr Davis said he welcomed the government's decision to accept his proposal to "decouple" the renewal of the controversial control orders on terror suspects and promised the Conservatives would ensure an easy passage for the legislation.
Mr Oaten said he supported in principle the new offences of "acts preparatory to terrorism" and the measures to tackle the training of terrorists.
He said there were some concerns about the "looseness of the language" in the new offence of indirect incitement to terrorism but Mr Clarke had promised to clarify the situation.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the human rights group, said that she welcomed the notion that anti-terror legislation need not be a party political issue.
"However, broad principled consensus must not be an excuse for a lack of detailed scrutiny," she said.
"We retain concerns about the broad concept of indirect incitement in particular. We will engage with the draft legislation constructively but with rigour."
Mr Oaten said that following the London bombings it was vital for the three parties to reach consensus on anti-terror legislation.
The three politicians have now agreed to wait until December for a report by the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile on the first year's operation of the control orders before they decide on their future strategy.