Charles Clarke said today that the Government has cross-party support for its anti-terrorism legislation and expects to have a range of new powers signed into law in December.

The Home Secretary made the announcement after a meeting with David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, and Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman, this afternoon.

Mr Clarke said there were "no main outstanding issues of difference" on the Government's proposed Counter-Terrorism Bill which would criminalise the acts of planning or training for terrorist attacks, as well as "indirectly inciting" terrorist acts.

Mr Clarke said that the three parties had enjoyed "an extremely good meeting" and that the Bill would be introduced in October with the aim of receiving Royal Assent by December.

"We believe that 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.

Today's announcement of cross-party co-operation was widely expected, and then assured when the Government persuaded the Liberal Democrats that it would review other controversial anti-terrorism powers separately next spring.

The introduction of the new Counter-Terrorism Bill was initially tied to a review of "control orders", which place severe restrictions on those suspected, but not convicted, of involvement in terrorism.

The debate over control orders nearly derailed the Government's last attempt to pass anti-terrorism legislation. But today's agreement effectively separates the issue from the main effort to give the Government new powers in the wake of the July 7 bombings in London. The toll from the attacks has risen to 56, including the four bombers, police said today.

The new offences proposed by the Government will make it a crime to glorify or condone any terrorist violence or make preparations for an attack.

The law is designed specifically to make actions such as downloading bomb-making instructions or attending a training camp for extremists a criminal offence.

The Government may ask for even more powers after Tony Blair meets intelligence and police chiefs on Thursday. The Prime Minister will ask Britain's leading security officials whether they need further powers to prevent another atrocity.

Mr Davis said that today's agreement showed that politicians were doing their part to make Britain safer after the London attacks.

"I think our country has responded magnificently over the last ten days," he said. "It's up to us to do the same."

But Mr Davis said that the Conservatives will continue to press for the use of phone-tap and intercept intelligence in court cases.

Mr Oaten said that the meeting had been "extremely constructive" and that "there is an agreement in principle" on the new powers.

More details emerged today of the visit by three of the four London bombers to Pakistan in the previous 12 months.

Detailed arrival and departure records from Karachi airport have been issued which give the exact times and dates that the trainee terrorists arrived and left Pakistan. Pictures taken at the time show the men looking confident and relaxed as they entered the country.

Authorities said, however, that despite speculation there was no official evidence to suggest the men had visited madrassas - the religious schools - or terrorist camps during their stay.

Immigration officials in Pakistan released pictures which show Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Mohammad Sidique Khan, 31, at Karachi airport on November 19. They arrived on a Turkish Airlines flight TK 1056, via Istanbul.

Travel records suggest that the pair travelled on by train to Lahore, the capital of the eastern Punjab province, seven days later. The local Daily News reported that the pair stayed at a hotel in the central Saddar business district.

Both remained in Pakistan for about three months before taking the Turkish Airlines flight 1057 on their return to London on February 8, 2005, officials of the Federal Investigation Agency said.

Pakistani intelligence officials have said privately that Tanweer briefly stayed at a religious school and met a member of an outlawed domestic militant group. This could not be confirmed.

According to the records, the third suspect Hasib Hussain, 18, landed in Pakistan on July 15 last year on board a Saudi Arabian airliner from Riyadh. No record of his departure was kept at the airport and it is believed that he returned home from either Lahore or Islamabad.

The three men, all from Leeds, were tracked by Personal Identification and Evaluation System (Pisces), introduced following the September 11 attacks, under which everyone who enters Pakistan legally is photographed.

The security officials said that they had not yet been able to trace the three men’s movements while they were in Pakistan.

Shahid Hayyat, a deputy director at the Federal Investigation Agency, said: "I have no such information, but I know that our security agencies are trying to get such details."

Asked if the trio may have had come into contact with a group led by alleged al-Qaeda number three Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who was arrested in northwestern Pakistan in May, one of the officials, said: "It is possible but again we have no confirmation."

Pakistani security forces today released six people from Lahore and Faisalabad who were arrested after phone records from the bombers' mobile phones were traced to addresses there.

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