POLICE chiefs told Tony Blair yesterday that they wanted new powers to hold terrorist suspects for up to 90 days without charge.

The dramatic increase in detention powers, from the current 14 days, was on a list of new security measures urged by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) during a meeting at Downing Street.

The meeting, which was delayed because of the four bombing incidents across London, was attended by all the heads of the security and intelligence services as well as representatives from Acpo.

Ken Jones, chairman of Acpo’s terrorism committee, told the Prime Minister that the police chiefs in Britain believed that it was now necessary to have further changes to the law to combat terrorism. Apart from the power to hold a suspect for up to 90 days, Mr Jones, the Chief Constable of Sussex, asked for a new offence of failing to disclose encryption keys, used by terrorists to keep secret the contents of computer files.

He also called for a review of border security and recommended setting up a special border force consisting of Customs, immigration, Special Branch and uniformed police. This is in line with a similar force urged by the Opposition.

Others attending the meeting included Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, Director-General of MI5, John Scarlett, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), and Sir David Pepper, Director of GCHQ, the Government Communications Headquarters at Cheltenham. Also present were Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney-General, and Des Browne, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Mr Blair was told that the extended powers could be supervised by a judge and if the detention period was increased to three months, it would provide more time to collect evidence, a crucial part in building up a case against arrested suspects.

As they discussed new measures for dealing with al-Qaeda and other international terrorist groups, it became clear that the bombers had again managed to evade the intelligence services’ radar to mount yesterday’s attacks.

Although Britain has been on the second-highest terrorist alert status, “severe specific”, since July 7, there had been no intelligence of a repeat attack on the capital’s transport system.

Security sources said that it had been realised after the attacks on July 7 that there was a high risk of a second attack, and this had been relayed to the public, notably by Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

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