Charles Clarke has defended his plans for draconian new anti-terror laws, insisting they are essential to protect Britain.

The Home Secretary announced yesterday that in future British people as well as foreign terror suspects could be kept under house arrest indefinitely in their own homes, without charge or trial. The new measures would be passed within weeks.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Clarke said: "National security has to come first and that's why I have proposed these changes to the law."

He conceded that they would be controversial, but said Britain had to protect itself "against those who would seek to destroy every element of our society".

The "substantial powers" would only be exercised in a "very small number of cases", Mr Clarke said.

Natalia Garcia, lawyer for some of the existing foreign terror suspects, currently detained in Belmarsh and Woodhill maximum security prisons, told Today that Mr Clarke was really proposing a policy of internment.

"The fact that it is in somebody's house makes no difference. It is still internment without trial, and for those that have already been interned for three years, we are looking at a possible continuation indefinitely," she said.

Mr Clarke denied however that the control orders, which would impose stringent measures to supervise suspects through curfews, electronic tagging or by requiring them to stay in their homes, amounted to internment.

Tony Blair has also defended the new laws today, saying that the new measures would apply to only a handful of people.

Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum, the Prime Minister said measures to deal with the global terrorist threat were vital.

"I pay great attention to the civil liberties of the country. [The measures] will not apply to anything other than a handful of people," Mr Blair said.

"It is important that we put the security of the country first whilst recognising that there are civil liberty issues, which is why we try to take account at least of the House of Lords judgment a few weeks ago."

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