PRESSURE has increased on the Government to give way on plans to hold terror suspects for three months without trial after it emerged that the Attorney-General has opposed the move.

Lord Goldsmith has written to Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, to say he is not persuaded of the case for detaining suspected terrorists for 90 days before they must be charged or released.

The Attorney-General’s spokesman told The Times: “He believes the case is there for longer than 14 days but is not convinced he has seen a case for 90 days.” That did not mean he would not support 90 days in future but he had yet to see evidence to support such a move, the spokesman said. He believed any move must be subject to “rigorous judicial scrutiny”. His letter was written in his capacity as a Cabinet minister commenting on policy rather than as a legal opinion.

Yesterday Geoff Hoon, the Leader of the House, hinted at a readiness to compromise on the Bill, telling BBC Radio 4 that ministers “recognised it does contain a number of measures which will excite interest”.

Yesterday the law lord Lord Steyn said that the proposed anti-terrorism powers could violate the Human Rights Act and even be used to muzzle criticism of Government.

• The deployment of troops to Heathrow in 2003 followed specific intelligence of a plot to fly an aircraft into a terminal. Last week the White House announced that the US and its partners had foiled ten terrorist attacks in recent years. Security sources have said that three involved plots against Britain.

Sources confirmed yesterday that MI5 had uncovered an al-Qaeda plot to hijack a commercial airliner and target one of the terminals at Heathrow.

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