David Blunkett has indicated his backing for a raft of new measures to tackle the threat from international terrorism.

In an interview with ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme on Sunday, the home secretary highlighted a range of anti-terror laws that are now under consideration.

These could include trials without juries, making wire tap evidence permissible in courts and taking action against those suspected of "acts preparatory to terrorism".

Blunkett indicated that the measures were likely to come in a third term Labour government.

"It's not my intention to try and push a bill through this side of the general election, whenever the prime minister calls it," he said.

Questioned on trying terror suspects before judges alone, the home secretary pointed out that similar arrangements had already been introduced in the immigration system.

"I think there's a very strong case for translating what we have in the special immigrations appeals tribunal, that is the superior court of record, into the criminal justice system and there's widespread support for looking at that," he said.

Wire taps

Blunkett also said there would be no "snap decision" on allowing wire tap evidence to be used in court, but said it was on the agenda.

"Minds keep changing in the security service, in the intelligence services, other enforcement bodies, go hot and cold on this issue," he said.

"I've been investigating on behalf of the prime minister and will be presenting to him the findings so far.

"There is no easy way forward on this. It's a very, very difficult, technical question as to how much you expose.

"It comes back to the broader issues of admissibility of particular forms of evidence, of the nature of the disclosure to the defence, and how much you disclose and on what basis in terms of exposing your roots, the background to it and how the operators have collaborated."

Blunkett added: "We are going to have to in the New Year come down one way or the other but I don't intend, neither does the prime minister, to make a snap decision."

The home secretary also highlighted the possibility of a new offence of "acts preparatory to terrorism".

"We'd be able to use civil [orders], like anti-social behaviour orders, to say, 'if you step outside what we've precluded you from doing, if you actually for instance, use this particular banking network, if you, for instance, use the internet and we can identify you've done it, then we can move you from the civil into the criminal law', and then we can use the normal criminal justice process," he said.