Michael Howard has called on the government to introduce shared parenting rights.

During a Conservative summit on family issues, the Tory leader urged ministers to combat the "absolute gender bias'' in custody cases.

The summit has been designed to confront "the failures in the family law system and the issue of legal contact with children for parents and grandparents after a relationship breaks down".

Howard was backed by Theresa May, the Conservatives' first dedicated shadow minister for the family.

The Conservative leader told delegates that "the best parent is both parents'', even after divorce.

"The statistics on family breakdown have grown all too familiar. In 1961, there were just 27,000 divorces," said Howard.

"In 2001, there were 160,000. Today divorce affects almost 150,000 children every year, more than two thirds of whom are under the age of ten.

"Our courts are not just dealing with the financial aspects of family breakdown - they are also involved in trying to ensure that children have ongoing contact with both parents and the extended family."

Howard said that children "need to have contact with their mothers and fathers if at all possible".

"The Conservative approach is founded in our belief that when families break down both parents - and their families - should have access to their children if at all possible," he explained.

"We believe that in family disputes the courts should be the last, not the first, resort for parents who separate. Mediation should as far as possible always be the first step.

"We believe that there should be a strong presumption in favour of equal rights for parents to have an influence on the upbringing of their children.

"The absence of such a presumption has meant that parents with residence have found it far easier to obstruct the other parent’s access to their children and their ability to have a say in how those children are brought up. We must redress that imbalance."

Ministers consider reform

The government is under increasing pressure to address the issue of father's rights in the wake of high-profile campaign stunts by the group Fathers 4 Justice.

Despite disapproval of their methods, such as the powder bomb attack on Tony Blair in the Commons, they have managed to move the issue up the political agenda.

The government is reported to be ready to introduce reforms to custody law to offer divorced fathers a better deal on access rights and are contemplating equal custody.

They are set to introduce the idea of shared parenting where mothers and fathers get equal access rights, a common practice in New Zealand, Australia and the US.

They may also suggest that mothers who flout court orders on giving ex-husbands access to their children could be forced to do community service.

One senior government source, quoted in the Observer, said fathers had a "very strong and I think very justified sense of grievance'' about the family courts.