The Home Secretary has abandoned his suggestion that the standard of proof in international terror trials should be lowered to make it easier to secure convictions.

A counter-terrorism discussion paper published yesterday did not contain any of the “concrete suggestions”, including secret trials, outlined by Mr Blunkett three weeks ago.

Senior legal figures, including Lord Goldsmith, QC, the Attorney-General, had cast doubt on the legality of some proposals, suggesting that they could fall foul of Britain’s legal obligations.

Mr Blunkett had suggested a secret court system would be necessary to protect intelligence sources and that this could include specially vetted judges and security-cleared defence lawyers. But the proposals were absent from the discussion paper, which began a six-month discussion on dealing with terrorist suspects, including potential suicide bombers. Instead it said that ministers were willing to consider “any realistic alternative proposals” to deal with British-born terror suspects.

Mr Blunkett admitted that he had been surprised by the ferocity of the response. “I was aiming to start a debate, but putting forward some concrete suggestions only encouraged civil liberties groups and lawyers to come forward with their bulldozer,” he said.

His comments had caused anger in Whitehall because they overshadowed other government announcements.

Mr Blunkett has called on his opponents to put forward their own ideas.

“I am fed up with what little debate we have in this country being dictated by the campaigners and lawyers,” he said. “In short, I want answers and ideas, not just brickbats.”

Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman, said that the absence of almost all Mr Blunkett’s concrete suggestions from the discussion document was an “extraordinary embarrassment” for the Home Secretary.

Mr Oaten added: “We can only assume that colleagues concerned at the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the proposals from senior legal figures have silenced Blunkett at the eleventh hour.”

The 51-page paper says that the Government is looking at a more broadly based offence of “acts preparatory to terrorism”, and whether the law on conspiracy could be improved to make it more effective in terror cases.

A review on lifting the ban on the use of intercepted communications in court will end in June.

But the report gave warning: “It is important to ensure that any decision on whether or not to change the law is based on a rigorous assessment of the likely impact.”

The Government is also considering introducing civil orders to restrict people linked to terrorism, but not considered serious terrorist suspects.

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