WEEKLY reviews by a High Court judge would protect terrorist suspects held for up to three months under the new terrorism Bill, police chiefs say.

But the hearings would have to take place behind closed doors and defence lawyers would probably be excluded because of the disclosure of police investigations.

The choice of High Court judges was proposed yesterday by Andy Hayman, the assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard in overall charge of terrorist investigations, as MPs prepared to debate the Bill, which proposes that suspects could be kept in police custody for up to three months without charge.

Today the Conservatives and some Labour MPs will try to win a vote to change the way the Bill defines terrorism, which they say is too vague.

The Opposition also wants the new crime of inciting terrorism to include “intent”, so that the offence could not be committed by mistake.

But although Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, has signalled that he is likely to give ground on those points, the Government is due to vote against them today. Instead ministers want to make any changes to the Bill before its third reading next week.

Tomorrow the focus will be on the Conservatives as the Government defends its proposals to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days. The Liberal Democrats have stated their outright opposition to the plan, but the Tories have yet to state their position.

Mr Hayman believed that a weekly review would meet many criticisms of the proposal. Police would have to report progress on a case and the judge could test the evidence. A 7-day review would be much tighter than 28-day reviews using surveillance warrants.

Although Mr Clarke suggested last month that he might compromise and reduce the 3-month maximum, Mr Hayman said that he believed 90 days was necessary.

Police, he said, were operating in a “new normality” after the July 7 attacks and the present 14-day limit on the detention of terror suspects was no longer enough.

Mr Hayman could not say how many suspected terrorists police had had to release after 14 days but he said that every suspect held for longer than 10 days had been charged. He wondered if the public was comfortable with situations where someone was released despite the suspicions of police, remained at large, and then had to be rearrested when investigations eventually provided the evidence.

Mr Hayman said that after the July bombings police identified two locations in West Yorkshire that were suspected bomb factories. In one case it took them two weeks to get near the material because of the potential dangers.

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