Tony Blair took his response to the London bombings to the UN today, appealing to the world's governments to pass laws that prohibit the incitement of terrorism.

Echoing measures enacted against so-called "preachers of hate" in Britain since the bombings of July 7, the Prime Minister proposed a resolution at a meeting of the UN Security Council, which urges the world's governments to adopt laws that ban the encouragement of extremist violence.

Announcing the resolution, Mr Blair called on fellow members of the Security Council, including Russia, China and America, to unite strongly in the face of those who promote terrorism.

"Terrorism won’t be defeated until our determination is as complete as theirs, our defense of freedom is as absolute as theirs is of fanaticism," Mr Blair told the council in prepared remarks. "They play on our divisions, exploit our hesitations. This is our weakness and they know it."

The Prime Minister received strong support from President Bush, who said: "We have a solemn obligation to stop terrorism at its early stages. We must do all we can to disrupt each stage of planning and support for terrorist tactics."

The motion was unanimously passed by the council's 15 members, although it contains no precise definition of what constitutes "incitement".

British diplomats said the resolution was intended to strike a balance between encouraging a forceful response to terrorism and protecting human rights, including the freedom of expression.

But Human Rights Watch, a campaign group based in New York, said the resolution would equip repressive governments with an excuse to suppress dissent.

"The resolution’s sponsors have made it easy for abusive governments to invoke the resolution to target peaceful political opponents, impose censorship and close mosques, churches and schools," Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch told the Reuters news agency.

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