FIFTEEN international Islamic terrorist groups are to be banned under the Government’s anti-terrorism laws, the Home Office announced.

Charles Clarke will rush through the order outlawing membership and fundraising for the extremist groups. The Home Office said it was believed all the organisations had links to al-Qaeda.

The Home Secretary acted after being advised by the security services that the groups were a top priority. Although some of the groups are believed to have some supporters in Britain the Home Office said that none had any official representation. Mr Clarke said: “Recent events in London and elsewhere in the world have shown all too clearly that the threat posed by global terrorism has not gone away. The attacks of July 7 and 21 have served as a stark reminder of the need to maintain a vigorous approach to dealing with terrorists and their supporters.”

He said that after careful consideration he was satisfied all 15 groups should be added. “Proscription is an important power, and not one to be used lightly,” he said.

The Home Secretary, who will defend his plans for laws to tackle terrorism when he appears before the Home Affairs Select Committee today, promised a new measure to allow him to ban organisations that provide support and succour to terrorist groups. He is to change the current criteria for proscribing groups to make it possible to ban those which glorify terrorism. The change is needed so that the Government can meet Tony Blair’s pledge in August to ban Hizb-ut-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun.

Among groups that the Home Secretary plans to ban are the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which wants to replace the Libyan regime with a hardline Islamic state, and several groups operating against Pakistani and Indian interests.

Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the Home Secretary has the power to proscribe any organisation that he believes “is concerned in terrorism”. This is any group that commits or participates in acts of terrorism, prepares for terrorism or promotes or encourages it.

Once proscribed an organisation is outlawed in Britain. It is a criminal offence for anyone to belong to, support or display support for a proscribed group. At the moment 25 foreign and 14 Irish groups are banned.

Parliament will debate the proposal on Thursday and, after the organisations are proscribed, membership will be punishable by up to ten years in prison.

David Heath, for the Liberal Democrats, protested at the speed with which the order proscribing the groups was being rushed through Parliament. He said: “This is a single order — dealing with 15 organisations (and) incapable of amendment. This does not allow for proper and separate consideration of the different organisations involved and dealing with them on the merits which might be appropriate in this case.”

The Government is to publish its Anti-Terrorism Bill tomorrow. A Prime Minister’s spokesman said that he still hoped to reach agreement with opposition parties over plans to hold terror suspects for up to 90 days without being charged.

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